


Give Us Bread, But Give Us Roses

by Lee_Moriarty



Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: ACAB, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, Anarchy, Angst with a Happy Ending, Arson, Aziraphale finds a family, Aziraphale gets adopted by demons, Chaos, College, Crowley has issues, Crowley is an anarchist, Drunken Confessions, Falling In Love, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, Gabriel is a dick, Gangs, Illegal Activities, Love Confessions, M/M, No beta we fall like Crowley, Non binary Beelzebub, Violence, anarchist Crowley, antifa Crowley
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2021-01-26 15:03:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 29,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21376051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lee_Moriarty/pseuds/Lee_Moriarty
Summary: Crowley likes loud music, anarchy, and running from the police. He's also got thing for punching assholes in the face. When he accidentally breaks into Aziraphale's dorm room while on the run, he's got to come to terms with what he really believes and who his real enemies areCollege/University AU where Crowley is an antifa anarchist and Aziraphale immediately likes that aesthetic.
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens), Warlock Dowling & Adam Young
Comments: 40
Kudos: 149





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> So someone needs to stop me because this is now like all I do. 
> 
> Anyway, enjoy this which came from my desire to see more Anarchist Crowley
> 
> Also if anyone has any angsty prompts for these dumbasses, send me them and I might write them

The first door in the hallway was thankfully unlocked and he managed to get it opened. He could hear the pounding of feet on the stairs behind him. Shouting voices filled the air behind him as he slammed the door shut, locking it quickly. He could only hope that the police did not start searching rooms. 

The duffel bag he was carrying dropped to the floor and he could hear the rattling of spray cans inside of it. His chest was heaving and he was grinning, glad he had managed to escape being arrested once again. Bee would have his head if he got caught. He was waiting to hear if the police were going to stop, but was distracted when he heard someone clear their throat behind them. 

He whirled around, his glasses falling down his nose as he looked at him. “Um...hi?” he waved awkwardly, staring at the figure in a desk chair near him. He was definitely another, although he dressed more like a professor than he was a student. He wore a plain button up, a sweater vest, and a bowtie. He couldn’t believe that someone would dress like that just to spend time in their room. 

The other looked up at him, clearly over the shock that came from having a stranger unceremoniously enter their room, and it had been replaced by confusion and questions. “Uh, yes. Hello. Who are you?”

“I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m in your room,” Crowley started, only half listening to the question as he assumed the first thing he would get would be a question about why he was there. That wasn’t what he got and his sly smile fell from his face as he realised he had just been asked who he was. “Oh, right. Crowley. That’s my name. Anthony Crowley, but everyone calls me Crowley.”

“Right, well, why are you in my room?”

There was the question that he had been expecting to be asked the moment he noticed the other. “Well, I was running from the police.”

Shock settled over the blond’s features and he straightened up his seat. “Really? Whatever did you do, my dear boy?” That was hardly the reaction he had expected. He kind of thought that he’d be kicked out or at least asked to leave. In fact, the other got up from his seat, looking concerned. “Are you quite alright?”

“What?” Crowley stared at him. Again, he was not reacting in anyway that Crowley would have expected. “I’m fine. Just gotta lay low for a while.” He didn’t answer the question as to what he had done to be chased by the police as he expected that there would be news about it on campus before the evening was out. 

“Well, why don’t you come sit down? I’m sure you could use a moment to unwind as running from the police is hardly the most peaceful of hobbies.” This man was nothing like he could have expected. He didn’t think that anyone else would be so kind to offer a seat to some criminal who had broken into their room. 

“Uh, yeah, sure,” he nodded, taking the offered seat and shrugging off his jacket. It was black leather and covered in various patches and pins, each one proudly advertising some belief of his. He set it on the back of the chair, catching a glimpse of paint stained fingertips. “So...you got a name?” he asked, looking over at the blond and adjusting his sunglasses, covering his eyes fully as he considered the other in front of him. 

“Oh, yes, of course!” the other said, smiling as he sat down on the bed, only a few inches from him. “I’m Aziraphale,” he smiled even wider. 

Crowley snorted a bit at the name, looking at him. “Really? Religious parents then?”

“Very. They weren’t very good when it came to naming children,” Aziraphale smiled as he looked at him. “Now, tell me why you were running from the police? I’m assuming that it’s an amusing story and I’m sure you could use it to kill time before it is safe for you to run off wherever you need to go.”

He could hardly argue with that logic, and with his phone battery as low as it was, it wasn’t as if he could just wait around on his phone. He cleared his throat, looking over at Aziraphale. “Eh, it wasn’t anything very interesting.”

“More interesting than what I had been doing before you barged in,” the blond smiled at him before settling in, his hips wiggling slightly as he looked at him. 

He swallowed, shrugging a bit as he leaned back in the chair he’d been given. “Well, I was just out with some friends, tagging stuff, y’know?”

“Tagging?”

“Uh, spray painting, that’s all. You know, anarchy symbols, fuck the police, shit like that,” he shrugged, hoping that the man in front of him wouldn’t have an issue with it. He seemed kind of like the type to have an issue with his extracurriculars.  
“Huh, you do that often?” That was an odd reaction. Crowley didn’t mind it though. It was better than the other demanding that he leave.

“Often enough.”

“Well, if you need a place to hide next time you almost get caught, my room is always open.” Crowley swallowed, surprised by that invitation. He ran a hand through his hair, nodding. Aziraphale spoke again, “So you’re some kind of anarchist?”

“Babe, I’m the anarchist,” Crowley smiled before pausing, biting his tongue as he realised that was probably not the thing to say then. “I mean, ngk, just that like, yeah, I’m an anarchist.”

Aziraphale smiled at that, nodding. “Well, then it’s a pleasure, Mr. Anarchist,” he told him.

Crowley was about to say something else to him when he felt his phone vibrating in his pocket. “Well, fuck. I gotta answer this,” he told the other, frowning. He stood up from the chair, looking back at Aziraphale. “Hey, Bee,” he greeted, glad that at least they hadn’t been caught.

“Crowley, good. We thought you’d been caught,” Bee said over the phone, sounding pleased and disapproving at the same time. That was just how Bee was.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Found a place to hide out for a bit. Anyone get caught?” he asked, turning back to look at Aziraphale. He smiled at him before going back to the conversation. 

“Ligur did, probably will just end up with another AZZBO,” Bee told him, clearly annoyed. “He got caught because he couldn’t keep up with Dagon and I.”

“Make sense. I’ll catch up with everyone later. I’ve still got the bag of paints,” he told them, shrugging as he looked back at the duffel bag. It was still sitting on the floor where he had dropped it. Bee would at least be happy about that, since they wouldn’t have to go and get more cans. 

“Good. I expect you tomorrow. Usual spot,” Bee said, hanging up the phone before Crowley could get another word in. 

The red head grumbled a bit, rolling his eyes as he put his phone away. He looked up when he heard Aziraphale talking. “Your friends manage to get away?”  
“Huh? Oh, yeah, except one, but he kind of had it coming,” Crowley shrugged, not really caring about the fact Ligur had got caught. He’d not hear the end of it when he got home and had to deal with Hastur complaining about it. 

“Really?”

“Yeah, one of my flatmates. Well, I guess technically they’re all my flatmates, but whatever. Apparently no one’s expecting me until morning.” He rolled his eyes, even though there was no way that Aziraphale could see it, as his sunglasses were far too dark for it to be seen. “Don’t you have roommates?”

“Nope, it’s just me. Well, I had a roommate, but they left on the first day of classes,” Aziraphale smiled, shrugging. “Which was fine with me. I enjoy my peace and quiet.”

“Well, sorry for disturbing your peace.” he said, only mostly sincere. 

“It wasn’t an entirely unwelcome disturbance,” Aziraphale admitted, looking Crowley over. “Mind if I walk you home? I’m sure the police wouldn’t be looking for two people.”

“You don’t have to,” Crowley tried to protest, although, he didn’t think he’d mind that much. “I’m alright walking myself.” Aziraphale had a point though, the police wouldn’t be looking for two people walking around. “If you want to though,” he paused, looking at him. 

“I wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t want to,” he hummed, getting up. “Come on, you can tell me about your exploits as ‘The Anarchist’ as we walk.”

Crowley smiled a bit as he looked at him, chuckling. “Alright. Tempt you to a spot of dinner?” he offered.

Aziraphale smiled and nodding. “Temptation accomplished,” he agreed, putting on his shoes in preparation for going out. “Anything in particular?”

“Well, I was hoping you’d have an idea. The gang and I all kind of just live off of pizza, beer, and chinese takeaway.” 

“That’s not exactly a healthy lifestyle, my dear,” Aziraphale scolded him, shaking his head. “I know a lovely cafe near the campus. We can walk.”

“Lead the way then,” Crowley smiled, pulling on his jacket and heading over to pick up the bag of paint cans. He slung the bag over his shoulder, used to the weight against his back. He always ended up carrying it, so it wasn’t anything new. Aziraphale smiled at him, practically glowing as he found his keys, phone, and wallet, leading them out and carefully locking the door.

><

“How long have you been an anarchist?” Aziraphale asked as they walked. They’d gone to the cafe that the other had suggested. While Crowley hadn’t eaten much, Aziraphale had taken all too much pleasure in their meal and Crowley had mostly enjoyed watching him enjoy his food. 

He’d paid for Aziraphale’s food and for his coffee. The other had tried to tell him not to, but he didn’t particularly care, tossing some cash on the table and dragging him from the restaurant. “Well, I have been for a while. Bee kind of turned me on to the whole thing.”

“Ah yes, the infamous Bee,” Aziraphale smiled. Crowley had mentioned his friends several times during the evening, bringing them up with every story he told about their exploits. “They live with you, yes?”

“Yep, all five of us split a flat. Hastur and Ligur share a room, Bee’s got their own, so do Dagon and I,” Crowley nodded, shrugging. “Off campus since Ligur got kind of expelled last year and we couldn’t leave him alone.”

Aziraphale nodded, shrugging as he looked around the building. “You all must be close then.”

“Same foster home. All of ‘em have saved my ass a dozen times easily,” Crowley slowed as they approached his flat. It wasn’t far off campus and it was really rather close to the cafe Aziraphale had taken them too. 

“They sound like good friends.” Crowley was glad that Aziraphale didn’t ask for anything other details. He wasn’t really wanting to tell him much more. 

“Well, um, here’s my flat,” Crowley shrugged, gesturing to the building that they were near. “Do you wanna come up?”  
“Probably not the best idea, honestly, dear boy,” Aziraphale smiled at him. Crowley paused. He hadn’t expected to be turned down. It was probably for the best, he was right. 

“Well, can I get your number instead then?” he asked, hopeful. He pulled his phone from his pocket. The battery was at less than ten percent. He pulled up the new contact page, smiling. “You know, in case I need to hide from the police in your dorm again.”

Aziraphale smiled and nodded, taking the phone and inputting his own mobile number into it carefully. “Well, if you ever need shelter from the police, I’ll keep my door unlocked just for you.”

“Thanks. Night Angel,” Crowley smiled before turning red. “I mean, night.”

“Night, my dear.”


	2. Don't Break Anyone's Knees, Bee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crowley gets home, chats with Bee. There is talk of kneecaps being broken

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since people liked this, here is another chapter! 
> 
> Introducing Bee, Crowley's loving enby anarchist gang leader with a penchant for breaking knees

Crowley had planned on texting Aziraphale the moment he got into flat. Then he remembered that Ligur had borrowed his phone charger and then Bee had been waiting for him when he got back to the flat. He tossed the bag of paint down, shutting the door and waiting to hear what their group leader was going to say. “Made it back.”

“Are you sure no one got a good look at you?” Bee asked, their arms crossed. “I’m not wanting to find out that you got uzz caught becauze they were able to get a good zketch of you.”

Crowley grumbled, rolling his eyes. “Of course no one saw me, besides, shouldn’t you be lecturing Ligur about getting caught?” Crowley frowned at them, rolling his eyes behind his glasses. “Where is he, by the way?”

“Dagon zuggested we let him zit in prizon overnight, zo he doezn’t get caught again.” Crowley nodded, agreeing with that idea. Ligur was the only one who regularly got caught and it was a miracle that they all hadn’t been ratted out by now. 

“Well, we can trust the guy who helped me out tonight. He offered to let me hide out there whenever needed, maybe he’ll extend that to the rest of us,” Crowley suggested, shrugging as he walked past Bee and into the kitchen. “So what’s planned for our general chaos tomorrow?”

“Day off. We’ll lay low. Dagon and Haztur are gonna go post zome flyerz with linkz and zhit, try to recruit,” they told him, following. Bee was a good head shorter, maybe more, than he was. So when they got to the kitchen, Bee jumped up onto the counter so that they were more at Crowley’s height. “I don’t want you going out and cauzing issuez.”

Crowley pretended to look scandalised, slipping off his glasses and looking at them, “Hey, I’m not the one who keeps getting arrested,” he defended, grabbing a beer and chuckling. “I’ll go see the angel.” he paused, “The guy who helped me. His name’s Aziraphale, so he’s kind of like an angel.”

“Of course. Crowley, just don’t go cauze any trouble for the rezt of uzzz,” Bee shrugged, grabbing the beer from Crowley’s hand. 

The red head frowned at them, getting another drink for himself and pretending to bow mockingly. “Whatever you say, Lord Bee.” They shared a smile before Crowley headed out of the kitchen. He turned sharply and looked back at Bee. “Can I borrow a charger? Ligur has mine.”

“Eh, in the other room,” they shrugged, gesturing vaguely at the other room. Crowley nodded, heading into the room and grabbing the charger. He didn’t want his phone to die before he got a chance to text Aziraphale. 

“Hey.” No, that wasn’t the right way to send that. He wanted to flirt with the other. He was cute, but Crowley didn’t want to take a chance and be wrong. He wasn’t even sure if Aziraphale was gay. He didn’t want to risk driving him off, not when the other was so willing to help him. “Thanks for the help. Make it back okay?”

It took a few minutes for him to get a reply back. Crowley spent all of that time panicking that he had sent the wrong thing. He got into his bed, laying on his back as he watched the little bubbles pop up on his screen. It felt like it was taking ages for Aziraphale to type. 

“Ah! Crowley, my dear boy. I made it back just fine. Was your friend waiting for you?”

Christ, Crowley thought, he texted like an old man. He chuckled a bit though, smiling as he tried to think of what to send in response. Finally, he picked up his phone again. “Yep, Bee was waiting for me. Apparently they decided to let Ligur rot in jail for the night.”

“One of your friends who got caught?”

“Yeah, but he gets caught like once a week.” Crowley looked at the phone before deciding to send something else. “He’ll be fine. As long as he doesn’t rat on us.”

“Are you worried about that?”

“Nah. He knows better. Bee would break his knees and then Hastur’s, just for the sake of it.” 

“Oh my. Really?”

Crowley chuckled, staring at his phone and smiling. That wasn’t the reaction that he had expected, but he had a feeling that it was just how Aziraphale was and he liked it a lot. It was both amusing and endearing. 

He didn’t text back for a moment, setting his phone down and heading back towards the kitchen. Bee had fucked off to their own room and he wasn’t sure where Dagon and Hastur were, so he was alone in the shared space of the apartment. 

He looked through the fridge, wanting to find something to nibble on. He found an apple, looking at it for a moment before shrugging. It would do. He went back to the room, taking a bite from the apple as he picked his phone up again. Aziraphale had sent another message. 

“I just realised that I never asked you what you’re studying here, my dear.”

“Eh, Botany. I’m a fan of plants.”

“Really? Do you have any plants?”

Crowley smiled at that, taking his phone and directing the camera at the corner of his room. There were about six or seven different potted plants there, all of them especially green and thriving. He snapped a picture of them before texting it to Aziraphale. “Bee likes to laugh as I yell at them.”

“You yell at your plants?”

“It’s the only way to get them to grow properly. I can’t have them getting used to not being punished for not growing properly.”

The next thing that he got from Aziraphale was a photo of a rather sickly looking plant that he must have missed when he was in the other’s room. “What did you do to that poor plant?

“I’m not exactly sure, my dear. Perhaps you could help me nurse it back to health?”

“I could come check it out tomorrow. You need to remind it who’s in charge.”

“I’ll let you do that, dear.”

Crowely smiled a bit, looking at his phone as he realised that he had essentially been invited back to Aziraphale’s room the next day. It made him glad that Bee had decided their group needed to lay low for a day or so. It would give him time to enjoy spending time with the other. 

“I’ll come by tomorrow then. Hopefully without cops or paint.”

“I look forward to it.”

><

Crowley planned on going to Aziraphale’s dorm around noon the next day. He took care of his plants when he finally rolled out of bed, only to hear Bee storming around in the living room. He stuck his head out the door, noticing that they were already fully dressed, pulling on a massive pair of boots. “Bee? What’s up?”

“That guy you crazhed with. Izz he friends with the God Squad?”

“You mean Gabriel and his holier than thou capitalists?” Crowley asked, frowning as he stepped out and looked at them. “Dunno, why?”

“Azzhole extraordinaire left a note at our door telling uz to back off and leave thiz Aziraphale alone.” Bee said angrily. 

Crowley paused, shrugging a bit. “Fuck, I dunno. I was going to go see him though. I could ask.”

Bee shook their head, grabbing their phone before looking back at him. “I’ll go deal with him myzelf.”

“Bee, what the fuck?” Crowley frowned, chasing after them. He stopped by the door as Bee power walked out the door. He only stopped because he was only wearing his boxers and didn’t want to be running across campus half naked. 

He watched Bee run off before he went back to his room. He threw on some jeans and an old Queen shirt, wanting to get to Aziraphale’s room before Bee did. He didn’t even grab his jacket from his bed before heading out. As he hopped down the stairs, he pulled his phone out to text Aziraphale. “Bee’s on their way to talk to you. Something about the God Squad telling us to leave you alone.”

“God Squad?”

“I’ll explain later.”

Crowley huffed a bit, knowing that it was hopeless to think he’d even have a chance of beating Bee to Aziraphale’s room. They could walk way too fast and he just hoped that they didn’t have the baseball bat with them. 

He got to the room as fast as possible, letting himself in when he noticed that the other had left the door unlocked. He stormed in, seeing Bee in Aziraphale’s desk chair, the blond man offering them a cup of tea. “Uh, hi.” 

Aziraphale turned to look at him, his adorable face lighting up. “Ah, Crowley. Your friend here was just telling me about a note you got over night.”

“Uh, yeah. From the God Squad,” Crowley nodded, looking over at Bee. They were clearly confused by everything going on. Crowley figured they hadn’t expected to be offered tea. Luckily, he didn’t see a baseball bat anywhere. 

“Is that what you call them? I suppose it makes sense. Gabriel refers to your group as Hell’s Minions.”  
Bee looked at him, their face lighting up with understanding. “Zzzo you do know them!?” they accused. 

Crowley seemed offended for an entirely different reason. “Hey, he better not act like he coined that moniker. It was my idea!”

Both Bee and Aziraphale looked at him confused, before the two of them shared a look. Aziraphale broke the silence with a small laugh. “I’ll keep that in mind, my dear.”

Bee stood up from the chair, walking over to Crowley. “I’ll leave you to talking to him. I’ve gotta go bail out Ligur,” they told him, not saying goodbye to Aziraphale as they walked out of the room. Crowley could hear their boots echoing down the hall before fading away. 

“Well. do you want to go get some lunch? I can explain then?” Crowley offered. He’d figured out last night that Aziraphale loved food and would be willing to talk at lunch. Aziraphale smiled, nodding. 

“Of course. Let me get dressed.”


	3. Gabriel's a Bitch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aziraphale and Crowley go get coffee together, but oh shit, there's Gabriel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Y'all. Hope you enjoy
> 
> Warning: misgendering

They went to the cafe in the library instead of finding somewhere else to go. Aziraphale had high praise for the hot cocoa and Crowley thought he’d just get whatever so he didn’t particularly care. He let Aziraphale lead them as he didn’t particularly want to explain to him that he didn’t actually know where the library was. None of his people went there at all, and well, he wasn’t exactly one for studying if he didn’t have to. 

Aziraphale didn’t seem to notice, cheerfully leading them to a building close to the center of campus. It was pretty obvious that Aziraphale spent quite a lot of his time there as he immediately took to greeting all of the people working in the building. “So… I never asked what you were studying. You distracted me with your plant.”

The blond chuckled at that, waving at the library manager before leading them into the cafe. “Oh...well, I’m studying literature and theology.”

“Both? You’re doubling?” Crowley asked, staring at him. No one in his gang would even think about doubling up. Bee really was the only one of them doing well in school, well enough to double, but they were pretty satisfied with just the one course of study.

“Yeah, it was my brother’s idea. He didn’t like the idea of me just doing literature. Thought I could use theology more,” Aziraphale shrugged, grabbing them a table quickly. 

“Huh, well, do you enjoy it then?”

“Well enough. My family’s religious, which provides a useful background,” Aziraphale left his jacket at the table he’d claimed before going up to the counter. “What would you like to drink, my dear boy?”

“Eh, coffee, black, whole bag of sugar in it,” he shrugged, offering a cracked smile. Aziraphale stared at him before smiling. He ordered for himself before getting Crowley’s coffee. The red head went to go pay first, but his hand was shoved away and Aziraphale paid for them. 

“You paid for dinner last night, dear. I’m not going to let you pay now,” Aziraphale scolded him, shaking his head. He ushered Crowley back to their table, smiling at him. “Now, tell me about you and Bee’s problems with this ‘God Squad?’”

Crowley flushed a bit, making a bit of a face as he looked at the other. “Well, I mean, we’ve just always been at odds with them. Bee and Gabriel met their first year and hated each other right then. Bee kept calling back home to complain about him.”

“Gabriel Fell? Is that who you’re talking about?”

The redhead paused, looking at him. “You know him then?”

Aziraphale looked a bit uncomfortable, but he shrugged. “Well, yes. Gabriel is my elder brother. He particularly enjoyed complaining about...Bee and the rest of your group,” he said carefully. 

Crowley’s jaw dropped as he looked at him. “What? You’re related to the God Squad?”

“Yes. I mean, Michael is our cousin and Uriel and Sandalphon have known our family for years. We all went to church together,” Aziraphale explained, not seeming to take any offense to Crowely’s disbelief. 

“Huh, well, I guess that explains why we received that note last night.” Crowley mused, trying to just ignore the knowledge. Aziraphale seemed extremely different from the rest of his friends and such, so he could just pretend that Aziraphale had nothing to do with the rest of the God Squad. 

“Oh, yes, that was mentioned. I’m sorry he sent a note like that to you. I could have a chat with him.”

“Nah, angel, no need to worry. ‘M Sure he won’t be an issue,” Crowley smiled, getting up when he heard their order called. He grabbed their drinks, bringing it back to the other. “So, any classes today?”

Aziraphale thanked him, sipping his cocoa and leaning back. “I have an english class later this afternoon, so I can’t stay and chat for too long.”

“Just tell me when you want me to leave,” Crowley told him, grinning at him. The windows behind Aziraphale let in just enough light that it looked like the other had a halo above his blond curls. Crowley couldn’t help but stare for a moment. He was about to say something, looking away when they were interrupted. 

“Ah, Aziraphale. I noticed that you weren’t in your room,” someone said from behind Crowley. The redhead frowned at that, turning in his seat as asshole number one walked up to them. “I see you have a friend.”

“Gabriel, I hadn’t thought I’d see you today,” Aziraphale stumbled a bit, clearly surprised by the other’s sudden experience. 

“Well, I went to drop by and make sure you were fine and I assumed if you weren’t in your room, you’d be here in the library.” Gabriel kept standing behind Crowley, refusing to look at the redhead. Crowley frowned a bit, already growing frustrated by the other’s presence. 

“Well, yes. You know I enjoy spending time here. The hot chocolate is particularly delicious.”  
“Yes, well, you should probably lay off it. It’s starting to show,” Gabriel told him, his tone disapproving. The asshole clapped his hands together, right next to Crowley’s ear, which made the seated man flinch slightly. “Anyway, I just want to make sure that you weren’t spending your time with less than savory people.”

Crowley narrowed his eyes at that, a hiss escaping his lips as he tried to think of something to say to him. He couldn’t think of a retort and it just frustrated him more. He crossed his arms, looking at Aziraphale who was also frowning at Gabriel. 

“Crowley is a friend, Gabriel. No need to be rude,” he defended, crossing his arms as he watched him. “Besides, I don’t know what your issue with him and his friends is.”

“Well, I suppose it is none of our business what your friend and his little girlfriend get up to, but I doubt God will approve,” Gabriel said primly. Crowley’s eyes widened and he was on his feet without a thought. He turned towards Gabriel, his fist flying.

It connected with the other’s jaw and Gabriel went down. “Don’t you dare fucking missssgender Bee again!” Crowley hissed, eyes narrowed. “I’ll fucking kill you if you do it again.”

Gabriel looked up at Aziraphale from the ground, rubbing his jaw. “She’s unnatural and so are you, Anthony.”

Crowley glared, kicking the other in the gut. He would have done more, but Aziraphale grabbed his hand, pulling him back. The blond was really rather strong for how he looked and Crowley looked back at him. “I fucking warned him.”

“Crowley, leave him be,” Aziraphale told him, his voice calm. “I’ll text you later, but I think you need to go now.”

He grimaced a bit, kicking Gabriel in the stomach again, not as hard as he could have. Aziraphale looked at him disapprovingly. The redhead huffed, shoving his hands into his pockets and storming off, his coffee still sitting on the table. “I’ll jussst let Bee break hisss fucking kneesss,” he muttered angrily as he stormed off. 

><

Crowley slammed the door to the flat as he got him, still seething. He looked up when he got inside, looking at the rest of their group. Ligur and Hastur were both on the sofa, Dagon between the two of them. Bee was pacing the room in front of them, looking pissed. “Hey guys,” he greeted them. 

Bee’s head snapped up and they looked at him, “Crowley. Iz it true that you beat up Gabriel Fell?”

“Uh, who told you?” 

“Your friend demanded my number. He texted me a few minutez ago,” Bee told him, crossing their arms. “I told you to lay low, Crowley.”

He huffed, taking off his glasses and shrugging. “He deserved it. I wouldn’t have just beat him up for no reason.”

“And what was your reason then?” Bee looked at him expectantly and Crowley rubbed the back of his neck. All eyes in the room were on him, even if the other three hadn’t said anything to him. Ligur leaned over, saying something to Hastur and Dagon that he couldn’t hear. 

“He misgendered you,” Crowley shrugged, walking away so they would stop staring at him. “I warned him and he kept doing it.”

Bee sighed, not letting Crowley just walk away. “Don’t do it again, Crowley. I don’t want to have to go bail you out becauzze you couldn’t keep your fizts to yourzelf.”

“Course, Bee. I’ll avoid punching him when he stops being a dick.”

“We all know that won’t happen, Crowley.”

“Whatever you say then, Lord Bee. I’m going to bed,” Crowley shrugged, walking past them and heading out of the kitchen. He waved lazily to the rest of their friend group, still angry. “Ciao guys,” he hummed, slamming the door to his room. 

He pulled his phone from his pocket, frowning as he noticed that Aziraphale hadn’t texted him. Tossing his phone, he decided to nap, hoping for oblivion. The day could hardly get worse, right?


	4. Bee's a What?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aziraphale comes over to talk about what happened in the library

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, so this is all I do now. Especially since this was my day off, so here's another chapter.

Crowley woke to pounding on his door. He ran a hand over his face and huffing as he tried to figure out who would be pounding on his door. “Oh, fuck off, Bee,” he yelled, throwing a pillow at his door as he turned to look at his phone. 

It was a bit past midnight, almost twelve hours after he had gone to bed. He had missed a great number of text messages from Aziraphale, as well as a phone call. Part of him felt a bit bad about having basically ignored the other, but he was still frustrated that the other had basically taken Gabriel’s side.

Someone was still knocking on his door and he sighed, not even bothering with his sunglasses as he got up and went to deal with it. “I told you to fuck off, Bee,” he huffed, throwing the door open and pausing as he saw Aziraphale. The blond looked a bit concerned, his hand raised to knock on the door again. “Oh...Aziraphale. Hi.”

The blond offered him a smile, lowering his hand. “Ah, Crowley, I was worried since you weren’t answering your phone. So I came over. Bee let me in.” He paused, his eyes lingering on Crowley’s. “Oh my,” he breathed. 

Crowley frowned, noticing Aziraphale’s gaze. He frowned and turned, grabbing his glasses quickly. “Eh, sorry. I usually wear my sunglasses.”

“Oh no, my dear. I didn’t mean to stay. They’re just very vibrant,” Aziraphale smiled at him, following Crowley into the room. “I won’t mention it again if it bothers you.”

“Uh, thanks,” Crowley nodded, sitting back down on his bed now that he was back in his room. “So...you were worried?”

Aziraphale smiled, looking around the room before sitting next to Crowley. “Well, you seemed awfully upset earlier, my dear boy, and I wanted to make sure you were alright.”

“After you helped Gabriel though, right?” 

“Only enough that he won’t call the police on you. I’m sure that you’d prefer them not knocking on your door,” he told him, not taking any offense, despite Crowley’s pointed look. “Now, do you mind explaining to me what Gabriel was talking about earlier? What made you so mad?”

“You don’t know?” Crowley asked, confused. He had assumed Aziraphale knew. “Gabriel was misgendering Bee and that shit doesn’t fly here.”

“Is that why you use Them then instead of he or she?” Aziraphale asked. “I had been wondering about that. What’s the term for it? Non-binary?”

“Yeah, they came out while we were all still in secondary school,” Crowley explained. “Bee told Gabriel their first year. Cause they were friends for about a month. Gabriel couldn’t respect it so Bee hates him now.” 

“I can talk to him about it, if you’d like,” Aziraphale offered, looking around Crowley’s room. “Oh, these must be the plants you were telling me about last night!” he lit up, getting up from the bed and going to look at them. “They’re gorgeous.”

“Hey, don’t praise them. They’ll start thinking they can slack off,” Crowley huffed, following after him. “I still want to know what you did to that poor plant in your room.”

“I’m not sure what I did to it. I just couldn’t keep it alive, I guess.” he smiled, looking a bit sheepish. “You’ll be able to help bring it back, right?”

“I’ll try my best, angel. Won’t make any promises,” Crowley smiled before pausing, looking at his phone and noticing the time. “It’s awfully late. Were you really that worried?”

“Of course. You were upset and I wanted to make sure you didn’t do anything rash. Like going to beat up my brother again.”

“He kind of deserved it, angel.” 

Aziraphale hummed, shrugging. “I never said he didn’t. Just best not to be beating him up in the middle of the library. You’re more likely to get arrested.”

Crowley paused for a moment, looking at him before a smile broke out over his face. “You’re a little bit of a bastard, you know that?” 

“Only a little bit though.”

The redhead smiled a bit, humming softly as he sat back down on his bed. “So do you know what Bee and all of us do, angel?” He asked. The more he talked to Aziraphale, the more he thought that the other would fit in nicely with his friends. 

“Only what I know from Gabriel. That you’re all Godless criminals with no respect for authority,” Aziraphale reported. 

Crowley paused, staring at him for a moment before grinning and laughing. He doubled over as his sides shook. “Godless criminals with no respect for authority,” he repeated, shaking his head. “I mean, he’s not wrong. Well, for the most part. Bee’s a theistic satanist, so they believe in a deity. They’re the only religious one here though.”

“A theistic satanist?” Aziraphale repeated, looking at Crowley with some concern. “That’s a thing?”

“Course. They even named themselves after Beelzebub, ya know, prince of hell and all that,” Crowley shrugged, leaning back against the wall. “They explain it better, but they see Lucifer as like a beacon of hope and free will,” he tried to explain. “I’m not completely sure, but it’s something like that.”

“Right, well, what is it that you all do, my dear?”

“We’re anarchists, angel.You know, fuck the government. All cops are bastards. That kind of stuff,” he shrugged. “We’re anti government, pro people and shit.”

“Oh, right,” Aziraphale nodded, seeming to consider the information. “Interesting.”

“Bee explains it better. Maybe I could have them help me out with explaining.” Crowley hummed, rubbing the back of his neck. Bee was really much better at explaining things and he didn’t want to run Aziraphale off by making it seem like they were a lot more extreme than they actually were.

“Perhaps tomorrow. I do need to be getting back to my room, Crowley,” he smiled at him, standing up from the bed. “Mind walking me home, dear?”

“Ngk,” Crowley paused for a moment before nodding. “Yeah, course. I can do that.” He got up, finding a pair of shoes. “So… how was your class?”

“It was how it normally was. I did miss part of it because I was telling Gabriel that I wouldn’t talk to you again.”

“You what?”

“Well, I lied to him obviously. But it kept him from pressing charges. Gabriel isn’t in charge of the people I spend time with,” Aziraphale told him, shrugging.

“You’re the best, angel,” Crowley smiled, grabbing his jacket. He put it on quickly, looking back at the blond. “Come on then, I’ll walk you home.”


	5. Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aziraphale joins Hell's Minions and the Them

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is mostly a filler chapter! I'm hoping to have another chapter or two up tomorrow though! With actual plot

Crowley didn’t go to sleep that night after he got back from walking Aziraphale home. He had slept most of the day away, which left him oddly wired well into the early morning hours. None of the gang got up before nine and the first to stumble out of bed was Bee, who sleepily made their way towards the kitchen. Crowley had already made them a pot of coffee, which was sitting on the counter, still hot. 

“Morning,” he greeted, lifting his coffee cup towards them. “Thanks for letting the angel in last night.”

Bee grunted a bit, not saying anything to him until they had their own cup of coffee in their hands. “Crowley,” they responded, disappointment and amusement both lingering in their word. “Are you done hiding from your friend?”

“Yep, got it all worked out and everything, Bee. I’m thinking about inviting him to the meeting tonight.”

That seemed to wake the other up as Bee’s eyes widened as they looked up at him. “Really? You don’t think he’ll tell ze God Squad about our planz?”

Crowley shook his head. “He apparently kept Gabriel from calling the cops on me yesterday by lying about never talking to me again and then came over here. I don’t think he’s planning on telling them anything.”

“It’z on your head if he doez,” Bee shrugged, shuffling back to their room with their cup of coffee in hand. Their door shut finally and Crowley went back to lounging around in the living room, watching the news on silent out of boredom. 

><

“Mind coming over tonight? We’re having a meeting.” He texted later that morning, hoping that Aziraphale was already up. The angel seemed like an early riser, but he wasn’t sure and didn’t want to make assumptions. 

The reply came almost instantly. “What time, my dear?”

“Around seven? Bee’s ordering pizza, Ligur’s bringing coffee and beer.”

“Sounds like quite the party. What is it for?”

“Ah, you know. Discussing the downfall of society and how to eliminate power imbalances between the people and those who’ve put themselves in charge” That was how Bee liked to phrase their meetings, of course, he knew that they were a lot better at it than he was. He just hoped that it didn’t seem too edgy for Aziraphale. 

“Yes, of course. I shall see you then.”

Crowley grinned, pumping his fist as he looked at the confirmation that Aziraphale would be coming to their meeting. They usually met about once a week and usually after the basics, it devolved into quite the get together where everyone mingled and shared their experiences throughout the week. 

He just hoped that Aziraphale would fit in with everyone else in their little group. It would certainly be a shame if things didn’t work out because of that. His friends would always come first. They’d saved his ass too many times to give up for a guy he’d only just met. Although, part of him was worried that after a few weeks of knowing the angel, things might change.

><

Bee, Hastur, and Dagon were all waiting in the living room for people to arrive. Ligur was still out, securing the snacks and drinks for their meeting. While Hastur and Dagon chatted amongst themselves, settled back on the sofa as they waited for people to arrive. Bee was sorting through some pamphlets they’d printed at the library, just in case any of their usual members brought along new people.

Crowley was in the kitchen, making sure they had coffee going because at the very least, he was going to need at least two cups to make it through the evening. Like everyone else in the flat, he was only wearing socks. Bee forbade anyone to wear shoes in the flat, except of course, that rule didn’t apply to them. 

He almost slid though as he heard a knock on the door. In his rush to answer it, he almost fell, the socks slipping over the tile. He got to the door before the rest of the group, throwing it open. Aziraphale was waiting there anxiously, rubbing his hands together. 

“Hey, I do hope that I’m not too early,” he said a bit anxiously, looking around. 

Crowley chuckled at that, smiling as he stepped aside to let him in. “No worries. Bee’s getting stuff together and we’re just waiting on some of our other friends.”

Aziraphale stepped into the flat with a smile, glancing around at everyone. “You know, I don’t believe thatI’ve been introduced to anyone here other than Bee,” he told Crowley, waving a bit shyly at the others in the room. 

“Oh, right. Well, we don’t normally get new people who join us,” Crowley admitted, shrugging a bit. “So over there you’ve got Dagon and Hastur. They live here too. Dagon is kind of like Bee’s second in command here. And he’s not here yet, but Ligur also lives here. He went out to get the food. He got expelled because he got caught once while we were out picking fights and the school decided they were done with him.”

“Isn’t that the one who was caught the other day?”

“Yep,” he shrugged a bit. “He usually just stays behind and takes the rap for everyone if we all can’t get out in time.”

“Really? Why’s that?”

“Less to lose. He’s already been expelled and none of the shit we do is enough to put him away, so it’s easier than the rest of us getting expelled.”

“I suppose that does make sense then,” Aziraphale nodded, looking around. “Does anyone else come to these meetings?”

“Yeah, a couple of first years I kind of recruited on accident,” Crowley shrugged. 

“I think there might be a story there, my dear boy.”

The red head just shrugged again, rubbing the back of his head. “Eh, not really. Least not one I’ll tell when the gremlins are supposed to show up soon.”

Not even a minute late, the door was thrown open and a guy with blond curls entered the room, followed by a small group. “Don’t worry, we made it,” the blond announced. 

The roommates and Aziraphale all stopped their conversations to look at the group that had just entered. Crowley was the first to break the silence. “Hey there, little Antichrist,” he greeted Adam and the rest of his group. 

“Hey Crowley! Who’ve you got there?” the other asked, grinning as he left the doorway and went over to Crowley. 

“I stole an angel, couldn’t you tell? Converted him to our wicked wiles,” he said with mock seriousness before gesturing back to Aziraphale. “Adam, this is Aziraphale. Angel, this is The Great Beast and the Them.”

Aziraphale smiled, holding his hand out for Adam to shake. “Hello,” he said cordially, waving to the rest of the group. 

Adam shook his hand before waving back at his friends. “This is Pepper, Brian, and Wensleydale,” he introduced the others before a small bark sounded from a bag that Brian was holding. “Shush, Dog, you know pets aren’t allowed here,” Adam scolded the dog jokily. 

“I zee you even brought your hound to the meeting,” Bee said from the other side of the room. “Firzt an angel and member of the God Squad and now a hellhound. We’re becoming quite the group.”

“You have a dog named Dog?” Aziraphale commented, seeming a bit concerned by Adam’s choice at name. “Isn’t that a bit confusing?”

“Saves a lot of effort,” Adam shrugged, taking the bag from Brian and letting the jack russel free. “Behave dog.”

Crowley rolled his eyes, grabbing Aziraphale’s arm as the door opened for the last time and Ligur came in, a few bags on one arm and two boxes of pizza in his hands. “Looks like the meetings about to start,” Crowley told Aziraphale, pulling him towards two seats so that they didn’t end up sitting on the floor. 

“What exactly do you all meet about?” he asked as they settled down there. 

Crowley paused for a moment, looking at him before getting up. Without a word, he went over to where Bee was, grabbing the pamphlets they’d put out. “Angel needs these,” he told them, shrugging as he walked back over to Aziraphale.

“What are these?” Aziraphale asked, taking the pamphlets as Crowely sat back down. He looked them over and Crowley knew that Aziraphale would definitely be interested in the book list on the back of the main flyer. 

“Bee makes them. And like I said, they’re much better at explaining stuff to newbies.”

“So I’m a newbie now?”

Crowley grinned at him, shrugging a bit. “I mean, yeah? You’re the newest here,” he told him, watching as the other’s eyes lit up at the list of books. “By the way, a lot of those are at the library. I checked for you.”

Aziraphale smiled at that, beaming at Crowley as he wiggled a bit in his seat. “I’ll have to find them.”

Crowley was about to say something back, but Bee shot them a look, quieting everyone as they started the meeting. 

“Alright, fuckerzzz. Anyone got any deedz of the week they wanna tell everyone about?” they said loudly, drawing all the attention. No one said anything for a moment, everyone looking at each other. 

Adam broke the silence first. “The Them and I spent some time covering up swastikas on campus.”

With a nod, Pepper continued, “There’s been an increase in them. I think some nazi group is moving in on us.”

Bee nodded, clearly making a mental note about that. It would be bad news for everyone if it was true. They were already having to deal with the God Squad, They’d have a lot more on their hands if a gang of neo nazis joined the campus. 

Crowley cleared his throat, looking at the group and deciding to change the subject. “I got to punch Gabriel Fell in the face,” he said lightly, grinning a bit. Aziraphale elbowed him a bit, a small smile on his face. That just made Crowley grin even more. “I also corrupted an angel,” he hummed, gesturing to Aziraphale. 

Bee rolled their eyes. “Yezzz, Crowley almost got himzelf arrested before he decided not to listen when I told him to lay low,” they said disapprovingly. 

“You really got to punch the leader of the God Squad in the face?” Adam grinned at that. “Easily the best deed of the week, I’m calling it.”

“See, the antichrist thinks I did a good thing,” Crowley defended himself before Bee told everyone to shut up so that they could keep discussing plans for the next week.It was just like how their normal meetings were and Crowley spent most of his time looking at Aziraphale, hoping he’d really join their little group.


	6. Foolish to Think

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crowley and Aziraphale spread discord and Gabriel is also there

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all! I'm back again for the second time today!
> 
> Also I decided angst was necessary for this, so sorry? 
> 
> And if anyone wants to be sad, the last part was written while I was listening to the song "Foolish to Think" from A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder and if anyone is wanting to angst even more, I'd recommend listening to that at the end.

Crowley grumbled as he and Aziraphale wandered the streets of the campus. The meeting had gone how it normally went, with everyone descending into chatter after Bee had discussed what they were wanting to do before the next meeting. Crowley had woken up the morning after though, to a massive stack of papers and a stapler. 

Bee wanted them to hang the flyers up around campus, because apparently they couldn’t get Hastur and Dagon to agree to do it. Of course, Crowley had recruited Aziraphale to help him out with the massive stack of papers. He wasn’t sure where Bee got the printer allowance for the amount of stuff that they printed, but he let them deal with that. 

Luckily it was a nice day out, only just a bit cold, and he and Aziraphale each carried half the stack. It was significantly better to put them up with someone else rather than doing it alone. As he stapled a flyer to a pole near the library, he turned to look back at the blond. 

“So, how do you feel about your first assignment as an anarchist? As badass as you thought it would be?”

Aziraphale smiled a bit as he took the stapler and attached a paper to another pole. “I didn’t expect that I would be hanging up papers advertising an anti government meeting on my free day, my dear,” he commented, chuckling a bit. “What was your first assignment then?”

He paused, shrugging. “Uh...well, I helped Hastur jump a guy who’d tried to threaten Bee.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, wasn’t really an assignment, but it was right after we’d all kind of banded together. I mean, we were all under sixteen still, but we were pretty determined to do whatever it took to help each other. And now we’ve got the Them and you who’ve joined us.”

“Well, then I suppose I should be grateful that this is a rather tame task and you’re not expecting me to attack anyone,” Aziraphale smiled, shrugging. “I don’t think I’d be able to.”

Crowley grinned, finding a bulletin board and stabling the flyer to it. “Eh, I could teach you if you need it. Or I’ll just hang around enough that no one even things about trying to jump you.”

“Aren’t you a knight in shining armor?” the blond said, looking up at Crowley with a teasing grin. 

“Only for you, angel. Anyone else and I’d have to kill them,” he replied easily, without even looking down at Aziraphale. 

“I see you’ve moved on to pet names,” an all too familiar voice taunted as Crowley and Aziraphale both froze. Crowley turned around first, glaring as he took in the sight of Gabriel and the rest of his gang. He had a bruise on his jaw from a few days before and Crowley couldn’t help the swell of pride he got looking at it. 

Michael and Uriel were standing right behind him, flanking their leader on either side. Sandalphon was trailing in the back, looking particularly awkward. Crowley was immediately on the defensive, even if he’d have to try and fight all of them at once. Four to one were fairly awful odds and he definitely wouldn’t win, but he’d try. 

Aziraphale put his arm on Crowley’s shoulder and the redhead backed down just a bit, looking back at the blond. Aziraphale put on a smile for Gabriel, stepping in front of Crowley. “Hello Gabriel.”

“Aziraphale, I didn’t expect to see you out here...with him,” Gabriel smiled tensely at him, looking back at Crowley. “What do you have here?” he asked, grabbing a flyer off of the stack still in Aziraphale’s hand. “Call Out Meeting. Support your community. Fight for your rights. Help your fellow man?” he read, skimming the paper. “Destroy your local government.”

“It’s exactly what it looked like, Gabriel. I know that you can read,” he said, tilting his head to the side. “Perhaps you might enjoy the meetings?”

“I’d not sully myself with the kind of associations you apparently like to make,” Gabriel sneered, directly the look mostly at Crowley. 

The redhead glared back from behind his sunglasses. He stepped forwards, just a bit in front of Aziraphale. “Well, apparently your brother has more concern about the welfare of others than you do. And here I thought you were supposed to be a man of God or something like that.”

“What would you know about being a man of God?” Michael answered for Gabriel, taking a step forwards and levelling him with a judgemental gaze. “You and your lot are no better than demons condemned to hell. Preaching your anti government pro violence ideals.”

Crowley narrowed his eyes, hissing at them in frustration. “Better than your anti sin and anti poor bullshit,” he retorted. 

Gabriel rolled his eyes, turning focus back onto Aziraphale. “I thought we agreed that you would stop spending time with these people, Aziraphale.”

“I’m not a child, Gabriel,” the blond reminded him, frowning as he adjusted the flyers, which he was struggling to carry with just one arm. Crowley grabbed them from after a second of hesitation, putting them on top of his own pile. 

“They are hardly the right influence. Besides, I would hate to have to tell our parents that you have strayed from the right path?” Gabriel threatened, shaking his head. 

“You wouldn’t.” Aziraphale paused, his eyes widening a bit at the threat. 

Gabriel’s face didn’t change as he shrugged. It was clear he wouldn’t have any qualms about doing something like that to his younger brother. “I would, Aziraphale. I think they would like to know what their youngest son has been doing. Especially since your chosen company is so...immoral.”

Crowley huffed, taking full offense. He didn’t really have a way to fight the other, not carrying the amount of flyers he was. “Angel, come on, let’s just go. Bee will have my head if I don’t get these all hung up by the end of the day,” 

“One moment, Crowley,” Aziraphale said after a moment. He swallowed hard and Crowley watched him, a bit concerned about what the other was going to do. The blond walked over to his brother, standing only a foot in front of him. “Would you mind telling Mother and Father that I won’t be home for the holidays? Feel free to tell them whatever you want about me.”

Gabriel’s smile dropped and he looked at him. It was clear that he hadn’t expected that. It was clear none of the God Squad had expected for Aziraphale to stand up for himself. The blond smiled a bit, clearly feeling a bit better about the situation.

“Ready to go, Angel?” Crowley asked, offering him his stack of flyers again as they decided just to walk away while Gabriel and his cronies were still in shock. “Want to take a break for lunch?”

It was clear that now that they were walking away from the others that Aziraphale was really bothered by the conversation with his brother. “That would be lovely, my dear.”

“Great, my treat then, Angel,” he told him. He glanced back over his shoulder, watching as the God Squad seemed to disband angrily. 

><

They didn’t finish getting rid of all of the flyers until well into the evening. Bee had printed well over a thousand papers for some reason, which was a bit extreme in Crowley’s opinion. At one point, Adam and his group had all come and taken a part of the stack, which helped them finish earlier luckily. As the sun was setting, Crowley started to walk Aziraphale back to his dorm, a small smile on his face. 

“By the way, since you told Gabriel you weren’t going to be going home for the holidays, would you like to join us? The five of us go all out. Tree, presents, spend the day handing out flyers and shit,” he told him, not wanting Aziraphale to spend the time alone. “I mean, I know we’ve got two months, but the invitation is there.”

“Really?” Aziraphale smiled at that, nodding as he moved a little bit closer to Crowley. “I would enjoy that.”

Crowley grinned at that, looking away from Aziraphale as he debated on how much of a risk he wanted to take with the other. “And well, I kind of have another question for you. Well, offer, but yeah…”

“What is it, my dear?” 

The redhead swallowed a bit. It had only been a few days, but he was hoping that he wouldn’t get turned down. “Would you be interested in going out with me?”

Aziraphale paused, looking at him with a frown. “Crowley...uh, I don’t think that would be a good idea,” he told him, looking a bit guilty. “You go too fast for me, Crowley.”

He paused. “Ngk,” he managed, shrugging. That was not what he was expecting. A small part of him was worried that he’d be turned down, but he was really hoping that wouldn’t happen. “Oh, right, well, nevermind,”

“I’m sorry, Crowley,” Aziraphale said as they paused outside of the door to his building. “I’ll text you later.” With that, he gave Crowley a small smile, heading inside without another word. 

Crowley huffed, kicking the wall before heading back away from campus, cursing himself for being an idiot. There was no way that Aziraphale would ever really consider dating him, so he was just being foolish. Part of him had thought that Aziraphale might be slightly interested, especially after the blond defied his brother just to spend time with him. He was wrong though.


	7. Well, This isn't Good

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crowley deals with rejection

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for this....
> 
> Warning for violence and angst

It was growing even darker, both outside and inside Crowley’s head. His hands were shoved into his pockets as he stormed down the back alleys around campus. It was something that he did when he needed to think. He had so many bad days in the last few years that he had the routes memorised and where he could avoid people. 

And that’s what he wanted. Nothing more than to hide and pretend that he had never shoved his foot in his mouth and asked Aziraphale out. He could feel hot pricks at his eyes as he walked, but he refused to cry. He shouldn’t even be thinking about it. He’d been rejected. Of course he had. There was no reason that anyone would want to date him. Especially not someone as perfect as Aziraphale. 

He kicked at the ground, slowly down in his walk. The sun was completely gone and it was getting cold. His jacket, while great for the aesthetic, was not warm and his teeth were chattering. He couldn’t go back to his flat. He didn’t want to tell Bee what had happened. He could only imagine the jokes made at his expense. 

He stopped in the alley, sitting down on the ground and bringing his knees up to his chest. It was too cold to be out walking, but he wouldn’t go hide inside. No, he was pretty satisfied with slowly freezing to death. He looked up when he heard people walking. It was a pretty small and obscure alley and he had never seen anyone else in the alley. He frowned, standing up from where he had just sat down. 

“What have we got here?” a female voice said, the footsteps stopping just in front of him. A woman with red hair was standing in front of him, a baseball bat in her hands. “Out here all alone?”

“Seems like he is,” someone else said. They came up from the other side of him, no baseball bat, but quite a bit creepier looking than the woman. 

A man walked up, dressed in black, a pointed smile on his lips. “Nice jacket you got there, Snake,” he grinned, standing between the two other people. “Mind telling me about those patches of yours?”

Crowley frowned, leaning back. His back was against the wall and he couldn’t exactly go anywhere. He was stuck and the woman in red looked like she wanted nothing more than to kill him. He glanced down at his jacket, frowning a bit. He was quite proud of it. From the serpent patch that stood out on his arm to the ‘Nazis Punks, Fuck Off’ patch that Bee had given him for his birthday the year before. 

“Yes, I’m quite interested by some of them,” the red woman said, swinging the bat and resting it against his chest. “Aren’t you gonna talk to us?” she cooed. 

The figure in white chuckled, smiling as they stepped forwards, now standing the closest to where Crowley was. “You’re one of those Demons? Aren’t you?”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” Crowley lied, frowning as his arm was grabbed. On the elbow of his right sleeve was a patch he’d gotten from Ligur. They all had one, a small white patch with their group name stitched messily onto it. It was that patch that the person grabbed onto, staring at it. 

“Looks like we’ve got a liar,” they said, stepping back with an odd grin. Their teeth were almost black, to the point where it looked like it was done on purpose. 

“I guess we do,” Red said, resting both hands on the baseball bat and looking him over. “And what do we do to dumbass leftist liars?” she grinned. 

“Let them go with some pamphlets?” Crowley suggested, frowning as his eyes flicked between everyone. He didn’t like where the night was going. 

“Nope,” White grinned as Red raised her baseball bat, bringing it down on Crowley’s leg, just at the knee. He went down, clutching his leg as he noticed the three people closing in on him. The baseball bat came down a few more times, accompanied by fists and booted feet. 

He felt a fist hit his jaw before the baseball bat connected with his temple. 

><

True to his word, Aziraphale did text Crowley only a few moments after they parted. He never got an answer though. He chalked it up to Crowley being upset. He’d got an answer eventually, but he’d wait a bit. 

His evening went normally, or at least, what had been normal for him before he’d met Crowley. He settled in with a book and some hot cocoa and let hours pass him by that way. He didn’t look up until he heard a frantic knocking on his door. No one he knew would knock like that and Crowley knew that he kept his door unlocked most evenings. 

Carefully, he opened it, wary of who might be on the other side. What he was not expecting, was Bee. They were shifting in front of his door, clearly unable to keep still. They looked up when Aziraphale opened the door, eyes anxious. “Izz Crowley here?” they demanded, shoving their way into the room and looking around. 

“Um, no, I’m afraid not. Why?”

Bee looked up at him, frowning as a long string of curses fled from their lips. “He never came back and won’t anzwer his phone. He’z uzually pretty good at anzwering hiz phone when he’z out this late.”

“Are you sure he’s not just in his room?” Aziraphale asked, shutting his door and looking over at Bee.

“The door to his room was ztill open. Bezides, he alwayz answerz his phone this late,” Bee said, stressing the issue. 

“Maybe he went for a walk?” Aziraphale tried again, although he had an odd sinking feeling in his gut. “My dear, you don’t think that something happened to him, do you?”

“I would not be here looking for him if I thought he waz fine,” Bee snapped at him, crossing their arms 

Aziraphale wrung his hands, fretting a bit to himself as he paced the room. The look that Bee was giving him was borderline dangerous and he was a bit worried about it. From what he heard about Crowley, Bee wasn’t someone to mess with and clearly an emotional Bee was one who would have no qualms about hurting him. “Well, then we should go look for him,” Aziraphale said, nodding firmly before looking back at Bee. 

“We already have people out looking for him,” Bee said tensely, not moving from the place they were standing. They hadn’t moved since entering the room actually and it was a little bit disconcerting for Aziraphale. 

“Then we should go,” he said, inviting himself along. He grabbed his coat and phone, hoping that it wasn’t too cold out. 

Bee looked conflicted, as if they weren’t really wanting him to accompany them on the quest to find Crowley, but Aziraphale wasn’t going to give them a chance to say no to him. Instead, he grabbed his keys, leaving the door unlocked as he ushered Bee out of his room. “I’m sure he is fine, my dear,” he assured them, despite his own doubts. He really did hope that he wouldn’t be wrong about that. 

They got a call from Adam an hour later. Bee hadn’t been lying when they said they had people looking for Crowley. The campus seemed darker than normal and Aziraphale could feel his nose starting to get just a bit too cold for his liking. 

Bee’s phone had cut through the uncomfortable silence between them. It was clear that Bee thought he had something to do with Crowley’s disappearance. Or at least knew more. He didn’t though. He just hoped that Crowley was alright. 

“Yezzz?” they snapped into their phone, eyes narrowing before widening in shock and relief. Aziraphale stood a few paces behind them, doing his best to warm up his hands. He tried to listen in to the conversation, but he couldn’t hear very well. When Bee shut the phone, they turned to look at Aziraphale, a scowl on their face. “Adam haz found him,” they told him tensely. “He sayz he had to call Anathema. One of Crowley’z friendz who helpz us.”

“Oh, really? Where is he and why did they have to call this Anathema?” 

“Anathema iz a nurzing ztudent. Zhe helpz when we can’t take our people to the hozzpital.”

That sent a pit falling through Aziraphale’s stomach as he realised what that meant. Crowley was hurt, out alone somewhere in the dark. He hated that. “We should go to him,” he said firmly. “Where is he?”

Bee didn’t say anything, taking off in the opposite direction. Aziraphale followed after them, watching as they hurried off campus and towards a rougher part of the city. It was in a small alley that he noticed Adam and the rest of the Them, all clustered around another woman. The woman was kneeling next to the prone figure of Crowley, who was still unconscious, blood seeping from a cut at his temple. Bruises had blossomed over all the skin that Aziraphale could see and he found himself feeling worse, deeply hoping this wasn’t because of him. 

“Bee, glad you could make it,” the woman said, adjusting her glasses as she moved to stand up. The first thing Aziraphale really noted about her was that she was American, the second was that she had some of Crowley’s blood on her hands. “He’s in rough shape,” she added before her eyes darting over to where Aziraphale was, standing just a bit away from everyone. “Is that the angel Adam mentioned this morning?”

“He’z been hanging around Crowley the lazt few dayz, that’z all,” Bee snapped, looking down at Crowley. They seemed pissed off and just the slightest bit concerned about their friend. “Can you help him?”

“Bee, I know this really isn’t something we do, but he needs a hospital,” Anathema told them, clearly a bit worried about her words. “He’s got fractured ribs and I’m worried he might have some internal bleeding.”

“There’z no other way?”

She shook her head, “He needs to go to the hospital soon. He’s probably been here for an hour at the least.”

Aziraphale took a step forward, trying to get a better look at Crowley. It really was quite heartbreaking to see him lying there, so prone on the cold city street. “I can call?” he offered them, looking up. He didn’t get an answer from anyone, every one there avoiding his gaze as he looked around. “Right, well,” he sighed, pulling his phone out and dialling the emergency number. “Um, hi, yes, my friend’s been attacked and he needs an ambulance,” he told the dispatcher. “Oh, right, where are we?”

Bee snatched the phone from his hand, telling the woman on the other line where they were tensely before shoving the phone back at Aziraphale. “Did you have anything to do with thiz?” they asked him. 

“No? Why would I have?”

Adam spoke for Bee, still not looking at Aziraphale. “Because this was probably the God Squad.”

Aziraphale shook his head in disbelief, “No, how could it be? Gabriel wouldn’t have done this.”

“They’ve attacked us before,” Pepper told them, speaking up for the first time since he and Bee had arrived. The rest of the Them were all behind Adam, talking amongst themselves and not looking at Aziraphale. 

He shook his head, refusing to believe it. “I don’t think that’s what they would do,” he told them, not wanting to believe it. 

Bee walked over to him, standing right in front of him. They were trying to look intimidating, but they fell several inches shorter than him and barely came up to his chin. “Thiz iz your fault, Fell. I don’t know how, but I know that it iz.”

Aziraphale took a step back, shaking his head as he looked down at them. “I didn’t do anything. I spent the evening in my room.”

“No one bezides your brother would do thiz to him! It’s probably revenge for him corrupting you to our zide.” Bee took a breath, levelling a cold glare at him. “Get out of here, Aziraphale. Crowley might have vouched for you, but he’z currently bleeding and unconsciouz. zo get out of here before we end up zending two people to the hozpital tonight.”

Aziraphale froze, staring at them before his gaze moved around everyone else there. No one looked at him, deliberately avoiding eye contact. “Yes, well, of course,” he nodded, stumbling back a few steps before walking off quickly.

He got a text about an hour later from Crowley’s phone. Hope filled his chest until he opened and read the message. The hope died as he read the text message, replaced quickly with a deep feeling of dread in his gut.

“They’ve taken him into surgery. He might not last the night. If he dies, you’re next. -Bee”

He felt his heart drop and he couldn't even think to sleep at all that night. Instead, he sat up, hoping that he would hear something from Bee or Crowley.


	8. The Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crowley wakes up and he and Bee have a chat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all. Sorry for all that angst, but like I had to. I just had to. 
> 
> I was told to wait a few more days just to draw out suspense or some shit like that, but I've written like four chapters between yesterday and today and I can't wait. So here's the first out of like two or three chapters for today

Crowley woke to too many bright lights and voices all around him. His face hurt and so did just about everything else. With a groan, he tried to sit up, just to feel someone move and grab his arm. Which hurt, a lot. He blinked, turning his head to see who was holding his arm. 

Bee was in a chair next to him, their head resting on the bed. It was clear they had been trying to sit with him, but had fallen asleep at some point. That sent a bit of worry building in his chest as he took in his surroundings. He was in an all too white bed, in a very bright room with tubes hooked up to his arm. 

His stomach was killing him and he reached down, feeling stitches and pain along his side. “Bee?” he said after a moment, using the arm that Bee wasn’t holding to try and shake them awake. 

They jolted up the moment that he said their name, looking at him with sleep filled eyes. “Crowley,” they breathed, grabbing his arm even tighter. 

“What happened?” he asked, wanting to know what he was doing in the hospital. Especially since he knew Bee would never take one of their group there unless they absolutely had to go. He swallowed hard, looking around nervously. “Where’s Aziraphale?” he asked before pausing, remembering what had gone down the day before with the blond. 

“Some people jumped you, it lookz like. We’re not zure who, but it waz probably Gabriel and his zquad,” Bee told him, releasing their death grip on his already injured arm. “Your angel is off wherever because I’m pretty zure that thiz waz all hiz fault.”

Crowley shook his head, wincing as the movement hurt. “No, it was some new group. I didn’t recognise them. Knew about us though,” he told them, frowning. “Does he know I’m here?”

“He was out helping to look for you yezterday, but he’s a Fell, Crowley, there’s no way that he’s actually zincere about joining uz.”

“But he was. Even told Gabriel off when we ran into him,” Crowley huffed, leaning his head back against the pillow as he stared at the ceiling. “I asked him out yesterday,” he said after a moment. “If anything, I ruined things.”

“You did what?” Bee stared at him, frowning a bit. “You mean to tell me that you finally pulled your dumbazz gay head out of your azz and then got beat up?”

“After he told me no, yeah,” Crowley swallowed hard, closing his eyes. “He probably wants nothing to do with me now though.”

Bee frowned. “I zent him away lazt night.”

Crowley turned his head, opening one eye to look at her. “Why?”

“I thought that thiz waz hiz fault.”

He paused, frowning a bit as he tried to figure out what to say to them. He knew that Bee didn’t trust people easily. He’d met them when he was eight and they were nine and it took at least a year for Bee to trust them. While he and Bee weren’t as close as they used to be, they’d been inseparable for years. 

Bee had been in the first care home he’d been sent to. His parents had abandoned him without a word. Actually, they had said one thing to him. That he wasn’t allowed to tell them his last name. HIs mother had an affair before he was born, and as he got older, it became even clearer that he wasn’t his father’s son. 

They’d found his actual father, who was willing enough to take him. That had lasted a month before they were in a car accident and he was sent to the care system. 

Bee was like the older sibling he had wanted as a kid. He’d had a younger brother, but it wasn’t like he would ever have contact with him again. So he latched onto Bee, even if the other didn’t trust or like him for the first few months of their relationship. 

Now though, Bee was looking at him, clearly a bit upset. He could understand why, but he didn’t know if he was able to comfort them at all. He grabbed their hand, squeezing it. “Well, it wasn’t. Some new group.” he said again, frowning as he closed his eyes again. “Mind telling him he can come? I’m sure he’s worried. He likes to do that,” he smiled fondly, chuckling before wincing a bit. 

“Do I have to?” they asked, frowning. “I mean, I kind of threatened him a bit lazt night.”

“Of course you did, you always threaten people when you think that someone you care about it in dangers. It’s just proof that you actually love me.”

Bee grinned a bit as they shook their head, “Gross. I completely hate you,” they teased him, smirking as they took his phone from their pockets. “I’ll text your little crush and get him here.”

“Good, how’s everyone else doing?”

Bee looked up from the phone and shrugged. “Adam’z waiting outside. I don’t know what you did, but he’z very attached to you.”

“Beat up a preacher in front of him, that’s all.” he shrugged, “I’ll tell you about it later.”

“You better, or elze,” they hummed, chuckling as they put his phone down. “Your angel is on hiz way. Zeemz happy you’re not dead.”

“Was that something you all were worried about?” 

Bee looked at him, rolling their eyes. “You almost died, you baztard.”

“I mean, it’s hardly the first time.” Bee huffed at that, shaking their head as they got up from their chair. They swatted at him, barely touching him since he was still hurt. 

“I’ll leave you to zuffer here then,” they chuckled, smiling as they stretched a bit. “I’m ztarving and I’m gonna get food.”

“Bring me jello,” Crowley grinned at them, lifting his arm and waving at them. “I’ll wait here for the angel then.”

“I’ll zend the doctor in too. Maybe they’ll give you good drugz.”

“We both know you’d just want to steal them,” he teased them. They stuck their tongue out at him, leaving the room. 

><

Aziraphale entered the room not even ten minutes later, looking exhausted and a bit frantic. “Crowley! You’re alright!”

The redhead turned to look at him, a smile forming on his face. “Hey Aziraphale,” He grinned, sitting up and looking at him. “How are you doing?”

“I believe I should be asking you that, dear boy,” Aziraphale answered and Crowley chuckled. The blond sat down in the chair that Bee had vacated, looking at Crowley. “Are you alright?”

“Me? I’m fine. Doc put me on some marvelous pain killers,” He told him, chuckling. “I’m just stuck here for like four days.” 

“Would you mind if I visited then? I could bring some books and read to you if you’d like?”

“What about your classes?”

“Well, I have one in an hour, but it’s the weekend tomorrow and I won’t have to worry about classes for a day or so,” Aziraphale told him. “I could come back later after my class with a book.”

“I’d love that, angel,” Crowley said, reaching over to grab his hand.


	9. How Crowley Met Adam

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the title says, how Crowley met Adam

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all! I'm back
> 
> And here's some humor and shit

Crowley was released from the hospital a few days later, with orders to rest and take the medication prescribed to him. True to his word, Aziraphale had come to visit him every day that he was there. Bee had sat in the corner most of the days, their arms crossed as they listened to Aziraphale read to Crowley. They had sworn the redhead to secrecy one day after they had admitted that they enjoyed ;listening to the other read. Crowley had just laughed and nodded, agreeing not to tell Aziraphale.

Bee had helped him back to their flat when he got out. Aziraphale was in class when he got up, so the rest of the group had been there to support him as he got home. He was just glad to be back in his own bed by the time he got in. Aziraphale was there the moment he got out of class, book in hand. 

Everyone else made sure that he knew how worried they were about him and when the next group meeting came around, even Anathema showed up for it. She never came to their meetings, as she had a class at the same time every week. But she skipped class just to make sure that Crowley was alright. 

The meeting, at first, was fairly somber, with everyone in the group asking how he was. The topic then changed to their new rivals. 

“So worse than the God Squad?” Adam asked for clarification. He was still rather upset over what had happened to Crowley the week before. 

Crowley cleared his throat, gesturing vaguely to the healing bruises on his face. “Much worse.”

The group descended into random chatter and Aziraphale reached over during the chaos and grabbing Crowley’s wrist. “I’m glad you’ve got some many people who care about you,” he whispered to the redhead. 

“Hopefully you’re one of them,” he grinned at him. 

“Was there ever a doubt?” Aziraphale asked. Crowley smiled at that before turning away, remembering the rejection from the other just the week previous. 

He didn’t answer as Bee called the room to attention. They handed out some instructions, including asking that everyone stayed in pairs or small groups to avoid anyone else being attacked. 

As the group went the way in normally did, Bee spoke up above the crowd, grinning. “Crowley! I believe you promized to tell uz all how you imprezzed your antichrist,” 

Adam paused and shared a look with Crowley. “You’ve not told everyone?”  
“I mean, it wasn’t that impressive.” Crowley shrugged before Pepper and Brian stared at him in disbelief. 

“Not that impressive. It was the coolest thing ever!” Brian told everyone. “It’s the only reason we all went here.”

“Now, I’m afraid you have to tell everyone, my dear,” Aziraphale told him. 

Crowley sighed, rolling his eyes as he looked around the room. Everyone was watching him with their full attention. “Well, fine. It was about a year ago,” he told everyone, getting into the story. 

><

Crowley was just out walking around the campus, not wanting to have to attend class that day. He had one of Bee’s baseball bats in hand, as he thought it looked cool and intimidating. He really didn’t want anyone to talk to him while he walked, and having a bat usually was enough to keep people from approaching him. Occasionally, the campus would allow preachers to come and preach in the courtyard and that was exactly what was going on that day. 

Since it was a time when a lot of people were in classes, the courtyard was mostly empty. Crowley noticed that besides the preacher, there was only a handful of students and group of four younger teens. They were definitely not students and he was fairly certain that they were there touring the campus. As he walked past them, he heard one talking about how she didn’t approve of the campus allowing the preacher on campus. 

Crowley stopped for a moment during the story, clearing his throat. “There is a bit of background for this, even if these little bastards didn’t know it.” He looked over at Bee, smiling. “Bee and I lived in a home for a bit that took us to this church for about six months.”

Bee frowned at that before their eyes widened and they looked over at Aziraphale and then back at Crowley. There was a distinct look of shock and surprise on their face. 

He just chuckled, nodding. “Now, this church was led by a preacher with an absolute prick of a son. Apparently he had two, but we only ever encountered the older one. Now, this guy was a grade A asshole and Bee and I hated him. Which was only fair because this preacher and his son hated us and thought we were the spawn of Satan.”

“He really did,” Bee agreed, smirking at that. 

“Now, this is important because the preacher that was on campus, was the same one that Bee and I dealt with when we were kids.” With that, he got back to the story.

The moment that he had noticed who the preacher was, Crowley was thinking of ways to piss him off. After all, a lot of the shit the man had said to him and Bee years ago, still mildly stung. The man had some speakers set up around him, a microphone in hand as he ranted about the dangers of sin and eternal damnation. 

It was all very familiar to Crowley as it was the preacher’s favorite sermon to give. He looked around, noticing that no one seemed to be paying attention, with the exception of the few teens staring at the preacher. 

It was the perfect opportunity and he grinned, taking the baseball bat in hand as he crept up to where the speakers were. The preacher’s back was to him and it was all too easy to smash two of the speakers, a grin on his face. 

The preacher froze, clearly noticing that his speakers were no longer working. The man paused before turning to look at him and Crowley grinned, bolting away so that he wouldn’t get caught. He took Bee’s bat back to their room, dropping it before heading back to see if smashing the speakers was enough to make the preacher leave.

He wasn’t gone and Crowley huffed a bit, rolling his eyes as he noticed the preacher had now targeted the kids who had been watching. He could see that all of them were clearly uncomfortable and the preacher was not getting the hint that he needed to leave them alone. 

“Hey Preacher, long time, no see,” Crowley said loudly, drawing the man’s attention away from the kids.

The man turned to look at him, his face contorting into a sneer. “Ah, Anthony Crowley, I was wondering where you had ended up.”

“University, obviously,” he shrugged, looking over at the kids, hoping that they’d walk away while the preacher was distracted by his presence. “You ever learn to not harass teenagers?”

“Teaching the word of God is not harassment, Anthony. Perhaps if you had bothered to listen to it, your parents wouldn’t have abandoned you,” he said, tone snarky. As if he knew exactly how to make Crowley back down. 

Except Crowley wasn’t the same as he was when he had gone to the church and he didn’t feel hurt. He felt anger. Which was enough that he just smiled at the preacher. “Perhaps you’re right, but…” he trailed off, grinning before stepping forwards and punching the man in the face. “I kind of like where I am now,” he grinned to the man, who was laying on the ground, hands clasped over a split lip. 

He smiled at the group of teens, waving. “Have a nice day, kiddos,” he told them, turning away. As he walked, he chuckled as he heard one of the teens say something along the lines of ‘We have to go here.’

Crowley finished the story with a grin and then looked around the room. The Them were laughing, nodding their agreement. “Well, so that was how I met our favorite antichrist and his gang of troublemakers,” he announced to everyone before looking over at Bee. “And Pastor Fell never came back to campus again after that.”

He could see Aziraphale pause, looking at him. “You punched my father in the face?”

“He kind of deserved it,” Crowley admitted, shrugging a bit. He was a bit worried now that Aziraphale might be a bit mad at him for that. 

The blond paused again before shrugging. “That is true.”

The entire room laughed at that and Crowley grabbed Aziraphale’s hand. “I’d punch him again too if he ever showed back up here,” he told him with a smirk. 

“Oh, I don’t doubt it, dear boy,” he told him, sitting back a bit more in his seat. “I’m surprised that I never saw you and Bee if you really went to my father’s church.”

“We sat in the back for the most part, didn’t really want for anyone to see us there. Drove the family that we were with absolutely wild, you know. They hated how we weren’t perfect little kids for them, Bee more so that I though.”

“Crowley, you were never a well behaved child, don’t go telling liezzz like that to your angel,” Bee smirked at him. 

“I was the model of a perfect child, Lord Bee. Don’t even pretend that I wasn’t.” He looked back at Aziraphale. “To be honest, we didn’t even know Gabriel had a brother. You weren’t exactly in the center of attention.”

“I preferred to keep to myself even then, Crowley. I sat in the front and read during all the sermons. That was probably why you never saw me. Besides, I was always a minor disappointment to my father. He wasn’t one for showing me off to his congregation because of it.”

“Sounds like a shit father.”  
“He wasn’t too bad, my dear,” Aziraphale defended before looking at him. “Do you remember your parents?” he asked, despite Crowley making a face at the question. 

“Eh, yeah? I mean, I was seven when they decided they were done with me. It was the usual ‘my father wasn’t actually my father’ and didn’t want that to scar the family’s reputation. I went to live with bio dad and they told everyone that I died.”

Aziraphale stared at him in shock, his mouth slightly open. “That’s horrible.”

“Could have been worse. Bio dad died and I ended up in foster care with Bee.” 

Bee butted in at that point. “Yeah, and the day, your skinny ass showed up was the worst day of my life.”

“Oh shut up, you love me,” he told them, making a face. “It hardly matters now though.”

Aziraphale looked at him before pushing further. It was pretty clear he wasn’t just going to let the conversation drop. “Well, have you ever thought about tracking down your mother?”

“And what? Deal with the family that decided to leave me over something that wasn’t my fault?” he asked, clearly defensive. 

“I didn’t mean...Sorry, my dear. I shouldn’t have pried,” Aziraphale frowned, looking at him. 

Crowley ran a hand over his face, closing his eyes and shrugging. “She didn’t want me and her husband definitely doesn’t. So why should I bother with them?”

“Why indeed,” Aziraphale agreed.


	10. Suprise, Bitch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bee holds onto promises and makes Crowley pay up for a lost bet from when they were kids

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not dead! I just was tired and didn't write for a week. So like, here's an extra long and fluffy chapter full of pining.

A few weeks past and the weather only got colder as November went by and the end of the semester came up for everyone. There had been no signs of the group that attacked Crowley since that night and everyone had relaxed a bit since then. 

Bee still didn’t really trust Aziraphale, but it was better than before. Crowley was just glad that Bee was willing to let Aziraphale in their group without too much skepticism. The blond had become an integral part of them though, spending quite a bit of time at the flat with everyone. 

The first day of December came too quickly if Crowley had anything to say about it. He hated the cold. It could have been worse though. His wounds had healed for the most part, although, he was left with an odd sort of limp as his hip had been badly broken by the baseball bat he’d been attacked with. Aziraphale swore that it wasn’t too noticeable, but Crowley definitely noticed it. 

He spent the afternoon out walking with Bee, waiting for Aziraphale to get out of his classes. It was the worst part of not attending the majority of his own, leaving him with too much time on his hands. Since Bee rarely went to any of their classes, they had been willing to spend time around the campus, ripping down any flyers they didn’t agree with. 

“Have you azked your angel out again?” Bee asked him, ripping down a flyer with one hand. “It’z been almozt a month.”

“Nah, I mean, clearly he’s not interested,” Crowley sighed, shrugging. “I’ll just stick to admiring from afar.”

Bee rolled their eyes. “You’re a dumbazz, Crowley.” They paused, turning around and frowning. “Crowley, are thoze the people who attacked you?” they asked slowly, not taking their eyes of those approaching them. 

Crowley turned and frowned as he saw a pair of people walking towards them, the woman in red and the person in white who had tried to attack him the month before. Tried and succeeded honestly. “Yep, that’s them. And they’re heading for us.”

“Think they want to chat or to kill uz?”

He shrugged, “Could be either?” he told Bee, starting to walk a bit faster. The others started walking faster too, catching up with them. 

“I saw you were tearing down our flyers,” the red woman from before said, her voice colder than the air. “Hardly appropriate.”

“Well, we don’t exactly fancy nazi propaganda on our campuzz,” Bee said, standing slightly in front of Crowley with their arms crossed. 

“Well, it’s our campus as well now,” the person in white smirked at them, “Right, War?” 

The woman in red, War apparently, grinned and nodded. She still had the baseball bat that she had used to attack Crowley with him, gripped loosely in one hand. “It is. And we don’t exactly like your anarchist bullshit all over it.”

Crowley frowned, stepping next to Bee, “Well, we’re not the ones who attack people in dark alleys at night.”

“The people we do attack don’t normally survive it. You got lucky, snake boy,” White said, making a face at him. 

“Well, guess I did,” he shrugged, refusing to take his eyes off of the pair. He didn’t trust them not to attack him or Bee the moment one of them turned their back. What he wasn’t expecting was to see the person in white to drop like a brick. He looked up, his eyes widening as he saw Aziraphale. 

The blond had a rather large stick in his hands, holding it as if it were so kind of sword. He looked just a little bit shocked with how fast the other person had dropped. “Oh dear, that was a lot more effective than I thought that it would be,” he said, before turning to the woman. “I do suggest that you leave, my dear, before I am forced to hit you as well,”

War stared at her compatriot before looking back at Aziraphale. “Really? You?” she laughed, only to be hit in the face by the tree branch. 

“Yes, me.” Aziraphale huffed as he watched her crumple, clutching her mouth. “Now, that was unpleasant. Is everyone alright?” he asked Crowley and Bee. 

Bee seemed almost like they couldn’t believe that it was Aziraphale standing in front of them. Crowley seemed a bit shocked about the whole situation too. Sure, there had only been the two there, which between him and Bee, they could have at least run away really fast. But to watch Aziraphale take them both down with just a tree branch and some snarky words, well, Crowley could feel his heart beat quicken as he stared at him. 

“We’re both fine,” Bee spoke for them, clearing their throat and looking at War, who was staggering up, her hand clamped over her mouth while blood moved down her chin quickly, dark and thick. 

“We won’t forget this, bitch,” War hissed behind busted lips and broken teeth, hatred in her eyes as she pulled her friend up, dragging her off towards one of the other buildings. 

Bee just glared, shaking their head. “Neither will we.”

Aziraphale finally dropped the tree branch, looking a bit fretful as he looked over Crowley and Bee. “Are you sure that you two are alright? They looked like fairly nasty buggers,” he asked again, stepping closer. 

“We’re fine, angel. How’d you know to come help us?” Crowley asked, looking over the blond and smiling at him. 

“I was leaving my class and I saw you two get cornered by those awful people. Did you know them?”

“Yeah, the same people who beat me up. Minus one of their friends though,” Crowley grumbled, rubbing the park of his head before shrugging. “Still want to go and catch a movie or something?”

Bee looked at Aziraphale, an odd look on their face. “Actually, I waz going to head back to the flat. Dagon bought herzelf a tattoo gun and I think Crowley zhould be the firzt zubject,” they said with a grin. 

Crowley’s face went white and he frowned at them. “Aw, come on, Bee. I thought you were only kidding about that.”

“Isn’t that a bad idea?” Aziraphale asked, looking a bit concerned and worried about the look on Bee’s face. They were grinning rather wickedly and both Aziraphale and Crowley were a little nervous. 

“Crowley lozt a bet a few yearz back. And the punishment was that I would get to pick a tattoo and a placement for him,” Bee told Aziraphale, smirking. “Bezidez, you know that Dagon iz good with a tattoo gun. Zhe won’t fuck up a tattoo for you too much,” Bee promised with a smirk. 

Crowley grumbled a bit, running a hand over his face and shrugged. “Fine, whatever. Coming, Angel?”

Aziraphale nodded, smiling. “I suppose it would be interesting to see Crowley get a tattoo,” he mused, looking up at the taller man. 

“Maybe angel should could one too. Bet Dagon could do some angel wings for him, or maybe a book.”

“My parents would kill me if I got a tattoo, though,” Aziraphale frowned. “And there is no way that Gabriel wouldn’t tell them about it if he saw.”

Crowley paused, shrugging. “You could get it somewhere he wouldn’t see. Besides, you’re not going home for the holidays, so it’s not like your parents would even get a chance to see it.”

“You’re not going home?” Bee asked, looking over at Aziraphale with a bit of confusion. “Why not?”

“Gabriel threatened to tell our parents that I’ve been exposed to the wrong kind of people and I told him that I just wouldn’t come back.”

“And I told him that he could come and spend Christmas with us heathens,” Crowley added, sending Bee a look.

“That takez zome gutz,” Bee hummed, shrugging a bit as they started walking. Crowley and Aziraphale shared a look and started to head after them. 

The red head knew that there was no hope of getting out of the tattoo thing. Bee would never let it go and they would definitely not let him veto whatever it was that they had planned. He walked next to Aziraphale on the way back to the flat, just a few steps behind Bee. “So how was your class?”

“It was how it normally was. The other students are horrible about completing their assigned reading, but I suppose it’ll only really affect them in the end,” the blond smiled, walking rather close to Crowley. So close that the red head felt his chest clench just a bit as he reminded himself that Aziraphale wasn’t interested in him. They’d not mentioned that night since he left the hospital and Crowley wasn’t about to bring it up again to only get his heart broken. He paused when he noticed that Aziraphale had been speaking to him. “So are you really going to let Bee pick what Dagon is going to tattoo on you?”

“I don’t really have a choice to be honest. Bee would never let me live it down if I didn’t let them have their way with this. I mean, they would tease me until I did agree. So it’s easier just to do it,” he told Aziraphale, looking ahead to where Bee was walking, seemingly ignoring them. “I just hope it’s nothing horrible.”

“Or that it’s not in some horrible place. Do you get any say in this?” Aziraphale asked him curiously, frowning a bit as he considered it. “Do you really think that I should get a tattoo?”

Crowley shrugged, chuckling at the sudden question. “I dunno. I thought you’d look good with one. Maybe a stack of books or something?”

Aziraphale seemed to mull over that thought before shrugging. “Perhaps I’ll think about it while you get yours. It’ll probably hurt a lot, won’t it?”

“Depends on where according to my friends with tattoos,” Crowley shrugged. “Knowing Bee, though, they’ll probably pick somewhere that’s going to hurt like a little bitch,” he winced, already worried about how badly this tattoo was going to hurt. “I hope not though.”

Aziraphale smiled at that, nodding as he looked around. “Well, maybe it’ll be nice and in a nice place, you know?”

Crowley scoffed before looking over at Aziraphale’s hopeful face. He had planned on making some snarky comment about Bee never being nice, but at the face, it dropped from his tongue. “Yeah, maybe they will,” he said instead, smiling back at him. 

They walked back to the flat in relative silence, which each of them occasionally making some kind of comment before falling silent again. Bee led them inside, opening the door slightly before kicking at it in some attempt of a dramatic entrance. 

Ligur and Dagon were sitting in the living room, the coffee table set up with all kinds of things. Namely some disinfectant and a tattoo gun. A roll of paper towels and some plastic gloves were in Dagon’s hands and Crowley realised that Bee had definitely texted her to let her know that they were on their way to the flat. They had planned this together and Crowley sighed, feeling his stomach sink lower. 

“Alright, Crowley, take off your glasses and sit down next to Dagon,” Bee ordered, a grin on their face as the door to the flat shut behind their little group. “I already gave Dagon the design for you.”

“Take my glasses off?” Crowley repeated before the color drained from his face. “You’re not doing a face tattoo, are you?”

“Trust me, Crowley. It’ll look cool and besides, you want to own a flower shop, it’s not like that will require non visible tattoos,” Bee defended, shoving Crowley towards the sofa.

“You want to open a flower shop?” Aziraphale repeated, directing the question at Crowley with a bit of shock in his tone. They hadn’t spoken much about what Crowley planned on doing when they finished up with university, so Crowley could understand the surprise in the other’s face and words.

“Yeah, I used to work at one back before we all came here and I’ve been helping out this one woman who owns one down the road,” he told the blond, looking over at him. He still hadn’t taken his glasses off and so Aziraphale couldn’t see the fond look that was on his face. Clearing his throat, he shrugged. “I’ve been told I can have a full time job there when I graduate and she offered to give it to me when she retires, so that’s why I’m studying botany,” he told him before looking back at Bee, who was getting impatient. “Oh, right, so what tattoo am I getting?”

“You’ll find out when it’z done, Crowley, now, take off your glazzez,” they told him, holding out their hand like they were expecting him to just hand them his glasses. Which was exactly what he did. He sighed, eyes closed as he sat on the sofa, deciding he didn’t even want to bother with looking to see what Dagon was doing. He trusted her not to fuck it up too badly though. She did art on the side for fun and was fairly decent at it, when she wasn’t too busy working to draw. 

“You never did tell me why you wear those glasses,” Aziraphale mentioned and Crowley frowned, his eyes opening so that he could look at the blond. Aziraphale had gotten a quick glance of his eyes once before, but even when he was in the hospital, he had kept either the glasses on or his eyes closed. 

“Eh, people just don’t tend to like my eyes,” he shrugged. “Too unnaturally bright according to one of the women we all lived with.”

“I think they’re gorgeous,” Aziraphale said before his cheeks colored quickly and he looked away from Crowley. The red head felt his face heat up a bit and he closed his eyes again, a small smile playing on his lips. He didn’t care that most people thought that his weirdly light brown eyes were weird, the color more yellow than anything normal. He just liked knowing that Aziraphale liked them. He could feel his chest heat up and he cleared his throat, nodding. 

“Thanks, Angel,” he smiled at him, not opening his eyes again as he felt something touch the side of his face, just under the sideburn. He opened his eyes and noticed that Dagon held a razor in her hand, carefully removing any hair that was on the side of his face. “What are you doing?” he asked her. 

“Don’t talk, you’re going to mess up the tattoo if you move your jaw, so no talking at all,” she ordered, setting the disposable razor down before pressing something against his face. It was cold, but he wasn’t able to see what she was doing, so he closed his eyes again. 

As the buzzing of the tattoo needle started, Crowley could hear Bee relating the tale of their run in with the new group. Including how heroic Aziraphale was when he came in out of nowhere and saved them from being jumped again. Of course, Bee didn’t exactly use the term heroic, that was just the word that Crowley would have used though, so he was going to keep thinking it in his mind. 

He felt the needle touch his skin and he immediately tensed up, not having expected the burning sensation that came with the movements of the needle. It wasn’t anything like he had been expecting, so he was definitely taken off guard by the whole thing. 

He could feel Dagon’s steady hand against the side of his face, the stinging burn of the needle as it buzzed next to his ear. He could also hear as she scolded him every time that his muscles tensed up. It wasn’t really his fault, it hurt and he wasn’t purposefully trying to tense up whenever it came down and dragged across his skin. 

He kind of wished that he was able to join in the conversation going on in the room, but he knew that with where the other was tattooing him, if he moved his jaw at all, it was going to throw off the lines. He wasn’t going to risk that at all. He didn’t want to end up with a fucked up face tattoo, since apparently that was what Bee wanted for him. 

He sighed as he felt the needle move away from his face for more than a few seconds. He was hoping that was it. He felt like it had been ages since Dagon had started to work on the tattoo, but he knew that it had really only been a few minutes. He felt her hand find its place against his jaw again and he closed his eyes, resisting the urge to grumble about how long this felt like it was taking. 

The needle touched down again and he shifted in his seat, doing his best not to move his face at all. He could hear people moving around him, then he picked up on Aziraphale’s voice from the other side of the room. He couldn’t make out what he was saying, but he knew that the blond was having some kind of conversation with Bee, as theirs was the next voice that he could hear. He wondered what they had to talk about, especially since he knew that Bee wasn’t exactly Aziraphale’s biggest fan. They didn’t hate him, no, but they still weren’t completely sure if Aziraphale was just going to rat out their plans to the god squad. 

Even though they’d known Aziraphale for over a month now, Bee wasn’t sure about his loyalty and that always showed when they were handing out assignments for the group during their weekly meetings. But from what he could make out from the conversation, it did sound like Bee might have finally warmed up to their resident angel, as he could hear them inviting him formally to their group christmas dinner and party. 

None of them were religious, except for Bee, of course, but they all still celebrated. Everyone pitched in with food and stupid presents that they handed out to each member. It was something that he and the rest of the original group had been doing since they’d met as teenagers and they had just added people to the celebrations as they grew as a group. 

He was excited to know that Aziraphale was going to be there this year, happy that he’d be able to see how the angel enjoyed spending time with their little motley group. He smiled a bit as he felt the needle leave his skin. The burning sensation was replaced with a cool wipe of some kind of cloth over his cheek and he assumed that Dagon was finally done with the torture on his face. The buzzing of the tattoo gun stopped and he opened his eyes to see that Dagon was cleaning up his cheek a bit. 

“That it?” he asked, clearing his throat as he looked at her. He wanted to know what this tattoo looked like. He had no idea what Bee would have picked out for him, but he really did hope that it wasn’t anything that was going to make him look stupid. It wasn’t something Bee would do, at least, not for a permanent thing. They wouldn’t mess up that badly. So he figured that it was something he’d like. 

“That’s it. Go look,” Dagon told him, slapping his arm as she began to take apart the tattoo station, cleaning things up as Crowley got up. 

He did as he was told, rolling his jaw around a bit. It hurt quite a bit, almost into the bone. It wasn’t nearly as bad as he would have thought, so he wasn’t going to complain about it. It could have been much worse. He got to the bathroom, flicking on the light in the bathroom and leaning forwards so that he could get a good look at the mark on his cheek. 

The skin was red and just a little bit swollen. The tattoo was in black and red, resting just below his sideburn on his jaw. It wasn’t a placement he would have expected for Bee to pick, but they had been right, it did look good. It was a snake, twisted around itself with its head pointing down towards his jaw. The red of its scales gleamed a bit and he hummed to himself, considering the snake on his face. Bee had picked well. He did rather like the tattoo. 

He could hear everyone in the other room, no doubt waiting expectantly for him to let them know what he thought about the tattoo that Bee had picked out for him. He sighed, putting his glasses back on as he headed out into the main room of the flat once again. “Alright, fine, you win. It does look pretty cool,” he told Bee, chuckling a bit as he ran a hand through his hair. “Definitely matches my look.”

“I told you it would,” Bee said smugly, crossing their arms and grinning. 

“Now, I think that our newest member needs to get some ink,” Crowley grinned at them, smirking over at Aziraphale. 

The blond froze at that, shaking his head. “I don’t know. It might not be a very good idea,” he told them, looking at Crowley and then back at the other three in the room. All of them looked like they definitely approved of the idea and Dagon had already started setting up her tattoo station again. 

“Don’t you trust me, angel? I promise it won’t be anything bad,” he told the other, smiling at him before moving over to where Aziraphale was standing. “Besides, it’d make you look pretty badass,” he promised him. 

Aziraphale looked at him before swallowing. Crowley could see the blue eyes of the other flicker back to the rest of his friends. “Alright, if you insist,” he said after a moment, nodding. 

Crowley’s face broke out in a grin and it caused his jaw to slightly ache, but he didn’t care. He looked over at Dagon with a smile. “Alright, take off your shirt.” he told the blond before moving over to where Dagon was sitting. 

“My shirt?”

“Yes, you don’t want your parents to be able to see it, so we’re going to do it on your back so that they have reason to see the tattoo in the first place.” Crowley explained before leaning down and whispering in Dagon’s ear, telling her what he thought she should do for Aziraphale. 

Dagon quickly took out a piece of paper, beginning to sketch up the design quickly with a smile on her face. Crowley watched her for a moment before looking back at Aziraphale. “You trust me, right, Angel?”

“Of course,” Aziraphale said immediately, looking at him with some degree of curiosity. He had started to unbutton his shirt, his sweater vest already resting on part of the sofa. He looked a little green, but Crowley hoped that the nervousness would fade from his friend before too long. 

It took Dagon just over twenty minutes to complete the sketch, prepping the design to transfer it to Aziraphale’s skin. She looked up expectantly at the blond, who was still working on his shirt. He had stopped with undoing the buttons while she sketched, not wanting to be left exposed for longer than he absolutely had to be. He didn’t like the idea of everyone in the room seeing him shirtless clearly, and Crowley almost hoped that the rest of them would get the hint and leave.

Ligur and Bee were sitting on the opposite side of the room, both of them talking and not even paying attention to the rest of them. So Crowley hoped that was enough to help Aziraphale with his shyness. That he wanted to see what the other looked like under his shirt. He was curious to know what Aziraphale was hiding. 

The blond removed his shirt, wrapping his arms around his stomach before heading over to the sofa. Dagon looked over at Crowley before clearing her throat. “Lay down on your front,” she told him, pulling on a fresh pair of gloves. 

Azirphale did as told and Crowley found himself a seat, perching on the arm of the sofa so that he could watch as Dagon worked on the design. When the blond had laid down, Dagon wiped at his skin with some disinfectant before placing the transfer for the tattoo design. Crowley could see it from where he was sitting and he smiled a bit, looking at it. 

It sat just above the other’s shoulder bones, resting there like it belonged there. It was in the center of his back, somewhere where no one like the other’s parents or other family members would be able to see. He knew that was important for him, so he wanted to make sure that Aziraphale was comfortable. He didn’t want to give Gabriel any more reasons to yell at Aziraphale, so he had picked that spot for him. He just hoped that it didn’t turn out too badly for everyone involved. 

He could hear the needle start buzzing and he swallowed, watching as the needle hit Aziraphale’s skin for the first time. Much to his surprise, the blond didn’t even seem to flinch as the needle began making its way through his skin. Crowley was actually rather impressed by it and a small part of him wondered if Aziraphale had gotten a tattoo before. He quickly dismissed that thought as he would have known. Aziraphale would have mentioned it when they started discussing tattoos. 

He watched the needle move and was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Aziraphale say something to him. 

“My dear, would you mind too horribly talking to me during this? I could use the distraction,” he said, not moving from where he was laying. 

“Uh, yeah, sure, what are you wanting me to talk about?” he asked a bit nervously. He knew that they talked all the time and that there was a whole multitude of topics that they could pick, but for some reason, he couldn’t think of anything. He could feel his chest tighten as his heart sped up. It was silly, but it wasn’t something he was unused to. The more time he spent with the blond, the more he felt like this and it wasn’t unpleasant, but it always served to remind him that Aziraphale wasn’t interested in any way besides just as friends. That hurt. But he could live with it. As long as he got to spend time with the angel. He realised too late that Aziraphale had said something to him and he swallowed hard, looking up and frowning at him. “What was that?” he asked. 

“I said, I’d like to hear about plants? You love them, but you never tell me about them and I’m curious. Maybe you could tell me about what you want to do in the future with a botany degree? Or maybe even just random facts about plants?” he asked, shifting just enough that his blue eyes met Crowley’s and the red head felt his heart just melt into a puddle. 

“Oh, yeah, I can do that,” he nodded before his mind blanked and for some reason, he couldn’t even think about plants. Not a single interesting thing about plants came to mind and he was a bit shocked. “Well….right...ngk. I like plants.” he said a bit dumbly.

He looked over and noticed that Bee and Ligur were staring at him, snickering a bit. He huffed, flipping them the bird before looking back at Aziraphale. “Well, did you know that they’re green?” he said before realising that it was possibly one of the stupidest things he could have even thought to say to the other. “I mean like, some are green. I yell at mine a lot when they get yellow or spots because they need to understand the consequences of not growing properly for me.”

“You yell at your plants?” 

Bee butted in at that moment, a wide grin on their face as they smirked at Crowley. “Oh, he doez. Wakez the whole flat when he’zzz in a bad mood. He even dropped one down the garbage dispozal once becauze he felt like it wazn’t growing well enough.” 

Aziraphale looked a little shocked at that. Or at least the part of his face that Crowley could see seemed shocked. “That’s horrible. Your poor plants must be terrified of you.”

“”It means they grow better, which is all that really matters,” Crowley defended, shrugging a bit as he looked over at Aziraphale. The tattoo was a little under half way done at that point and Crowley grinned as he looked at what Dagon had already finished for it. She really was quite good with the tattoo gun. She’d had one when they were younger and had tattooed a couple of their friends, but Crowley had been pretty firm in his refusal to let her give him one until she had more practice. Now that she had practiced though, Crowley admired the clean lines leaving the gun, permanently etched onto Aziraphale’s skin. 

Even if they stopped being friends for some reason, which he really hoped never happened, Azirapahle would always have something to remember the time they spent together. Even if he never felt the same way about Crowley as he felt about the angel. He realised that he was supposed to be talking and cleared his throat, looking around the room. “Well, plants need discipline, you can’t just let them grow all over. So you discipline them and they grow nice. Perhaps if you had yelled at your plant it wouldn’t have had the audacity to die,” he told the blond, which earned a chuckle from him.

“Whatever you say, my dear. But I think that scaring your plants isn’t the best way to make them grow,” he told him, humming a bit as the needle went over his spine. Crowley watched as he tensed. He could see the muscles tensing and moving underneath the skin and he winced a bit in reaction to the movement. 

“My plants are thriving better than your plant ever did, Angel, so clearly my method of raising them is superior.”

“Why don’t we just agree to disagree, dear boy, and you can tell me about your plans to work in a flower shop?”

Crowley flushed a bit and nodded, shrugging a bit. The side of his face was throbbing slightly and he was trying his best to ignore it. “Well, I help this woman down the road. She does psychic seance things a few times a week and I watch the shop while she’s busy,” he told Aziraphale. “I think you’d like her. She’s a bit eccentric though.”

“Every one should learn to be a bit more eccentric, Crowley, the world would be a better place if they were.”

Dagon picked up the needle, considering the skin in front of her before putting it back down and Crowley could see a small wince on the other’s face as the needle dragged the skin. “How’s it feeling?” he asked him.

“Stings a bit,” Aziraphale answered, shifting his head a bit. “How long has it been?”

“Little more than twenty minutes,” Crowley shrugged, taking a moment to glance at his phone. “Have you run into your brother lately?”

“No, he seems to be trying to keep his distance from me at the moment. My mother did call to ask why I wasn’t going to be coming home for the holidays, but I hung up on her before she could start getting angry with my answer.”

Crowley paused, a little surprised by that. He remembered Mrs. Fell from back when he and Bee attended the family’s church as teenagers and the woman had terrified him. He was surprised that Aziraphale would have the guts to stand up to her like that. “And?”

“Well, my father and her have called me twelve times since then, but I’ve not answered,” the blond admitted, closing his eyes. Crowley was still having trouble believing that Aziraphale had the guts to stand up to his mother like that and he felt his heart start to stutter again. 

“Well, that’s...wow,” he managed, trying to cover up his surprise as best he could. If the looks from Bee and Ligur were any indication, he was failing. 

“Then we will definitely be zeeing you here for the party, right?” Bee asked, looking over at Aziraphale. It seemed that they were done making fun of Crowley and had joined back in on the conversation. 

“Yes, you should be,” Aziraphale answered, nodding. Dagon wiped at the tattoo before putting the needle down again, adding a few lines to the tattoo carefully. Crowley watched as she finally wiped it down one last time, the whole room falling into silence. “Is it done?” the blond asked, not moving. 

“Yeah, you can move if you want,” Dagon shrugged, packing everything up and ignoring Aziraphale. 

“So what is it?” Aziraphale asked, clearly realising he wouldn’t be able to see it as he tried to look over his shoulder. 

Crowley got up from his seat, stretching a bit. “Come on, I’ll show you,” he told him, pulling him up off of the sofa and towards the bathroom. His eyes were on the black ink on the other’s skin, taking in curving lines and letters. He turned the light on in the room and helped Aziraphale move so that he could see the tattoo on his skin. 

The black stood out against the red irritated skin and would seem even more drastic when the blond’s skin regained its normal pallor. In the middle of his back, just above his shoulder blades, were two small outlines of angel wings, about the size of a notecard. They were fitting to Aziraphale perfectly, but what fit even more perfectly were the words. Above the wings, in clean script, read the words ‘Resist Everything’ and below, in the same script, ‘Except Temptation.” 

Crowley could see Aziraphale’s face lighting up as he read the words. “I can resist everything except temptation,” he said in a low voice and then he turned to look at Crowley. The red head was smiling a bit sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. 

“I remembered that you really like Oscar Wilde and I thought that it suited you well,” he explained, looking just a bit embarrassed. “Do you like it?”

“It’s gorgeous,” Aziraphale told him, smiling even wider as he took Crowley’s hands. “Thank you for convincing me to do this, my dear,” he told him, raising a hand to brush his thumb over Crowley’s fresh tattoo, careful and gentle as not to hurt him. “This suits you well too,” he said, looking at him before dropping the hand he was still holding. 

Crowley stared for a moment, heart stuttering before he cleared his throat. “Well, um...ngk,” he managed. 

Aziraphale just laughed and stepped out of the bathroom. “Are you still wanting to go see a movie?” he asked, leaving to go fetch his shirt. Crowley watched him go, still standing dumbstruck in the bathroom, his heart beating fast. 

“Fuck.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I live for comments and kudos as they make me want to post like 4 chapters a day


	11. Oh Shit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crowley meets Adam's boyfriend and he and Aziraphale have a very sad and angry chat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So hi! I've had this chapter done for days, I've just been lazy. 
> 
> So...there's a plot twist my friend help me come up with and I hope y'all enjoy it

Crowley and Aziraphale spent most of their days together. When Aziraphale wasn’t in class or when Crowley wasn’t helping Madam Tracy run her flower shop, they were together. Bee used that as a way to get them to do more work for the group, which was why, about once a week the pair of them ended up handing out flyers or removing ones that they felt were inappropriate from various school bulletin boards. 

The Them often went out with them or just ran into them most afternoons, and about two days after their brush with the tattoo gun, Adam had found them and demanded to see Crowley’s tattoo. The skin was still irritated and itched something dreadful, but he still really liked the design and was glad that Bee had picked it out for him. 

“Why would you get it on your face? Aren’t you worried about not being able to get a job?” Wensleydale asked him, adjusting his glasses as the four younger students stared at Crowley’s tattoo. 

“Why should he worry? It’s dumb to reject people from jobs because of tattoos,” Pepper told him before Crowley could answer. 

Adam shrugged a bit, looking at the two of them. “I think its wicked, don’t you?” he asked, directing his question at Aziraphale. 

The blond smiled, nodding as he looked over at the side of Crowley’s face as well. “Yes, I do think I agree,” he told Adam, offering Crowley a small smile after. 

The redhead rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses, shaking his head as he tried to shoo the Them away. “Well, it’s not going anywhere, so I’m sure you’ll see it again,” he told the gang, his lips curled up in a slight smile anyway. “What are you brats doing out today anyway?”

“We’re waiting on Adam’s boyfriend,” Brian said immediately, which urged a collection of shushes and ‘shut ups’ from the rest of the small group. 

Crowley’s eyes widened and he looked over at Aziraphale, a look of understanding on his face. “Since when have you got a boyfriend and why hasn’t he come to any of our meetings?” he asked, crossing his arms and attempting to loom threateningly over the boy. 

Adam’s face was a dark red and he shrugged a bit, clearing his throat. “About two months. I’m not sure he’d be interested in joining us?”

“What? Is he some politician or something?” Crowley asked, his tone was teasing and lighthearted. 

“Not exactly,” Adam said slowly, looking even more nervous. 

“Who is he then?”

“His name is Warlock. He and Adam are in biology together,” Pepper told them when Adam didn’t. 

Crowley didn’t say anything and Aziraphale spoke for the first time since the boyfriend had been mentioned. “Warlock, that’s a rather odd name, isn’t it?”

“He’s American too,” Wensleydale continued, sounding a bit sure of himself. “Adam likes it.”

Said boy was bright red with even his hair seeming to take a red tinge. Normally Crowley would laugh, but he didn’t. Instead, he rubbed the back of his neck a bit nervously. “So...you’re meeting him here then?” he asked Adam, looking for clarification. 

“Yeah, he should be here any minute,” Adam answered, clearing his throat. “He had to get lunch with his parents and they’re dropping him off soon.”

“His parents?” Crowley frowned even more, looking over at Aziraphale. He was about to make up some excuse. Some reason for him needing to leave, but then he saw the rest of the group looking off towards one of the buildings. 

A teen about the age of the Them was walking towards them, his dark hair pulled back away from his face. He was dressed rather formally for a kid at university, but Crowley assumed that had to do with having lunch with his parents. 

“Dowling? You’re dating the son of the American ambassador? Thaddeus Dowling’s son?” Crowley frowned at that, watching as the other teen walked up to their group. 

“Yeah? He’s really not so bad,” Adam tried to defend before looking over at Warlock, “Hey,” he smiled at him. 

“Who are your friends?” Warlock asked, stopping next to Adam. He pecked the other’s cheek quickly before turning to look at Crowley and Aziraphale. 

“Oh, this is Aziraphale Fell and Anthony Crowley,” Adam told him, gesturing. “Don’t call Crowley Anthony unless you want to meet the wrong end of a baseball bat though,” he said in a mock whisper, laughter in his tone. 

“Hi,” he greeted, offering a hand to shake Crowley’s. 

The red head froze, looking rather like a deer in the headlights before ignoring the hand, clearing his throat. “Um...I’ve got to go,” he said quickly, turning around and bolting away, not even waiting for Aziraphale to come with him. 

The blond didn’t follow him though, and Crowley huffed, panicking slightly as he shoved his hands into his pockets. Of course Adam’s new boyfriend was Warlock Dowling, who else would it have been? He ran a hand through his hair, just walking to nowhere now that he was alone. 

At some point, after some time, which may have been as little as ten minutes or over an hour, he heard footsteps behind him. “Why did you do that?” Aziraphale asked, his voice stern. 

Crowley turned around quickly, looking at Aziraphale with a frown. “Do what?”

“Run off? Clearly you have an issue with this Thaddeus Dowling, but why take it out on his son?” he asked, crossing his arms. 

“Because he’s probably just like him then. The Dowlings are heartless people and Adam’s just going to get his heart broken,” Crowley spat slightly, venom hanging off of every word. 

“How do you know that? Just because they’re into politics you think that they’re evil? Not everyone can subscribe to the same ideals as you, Crowley,” Aziraphale told him, clearly getting upset by that. 

“The sins of the father shall be laid upon the son,” Crowley huffed at him, frustration in his voice. Although, if Aziraphale had really been listening to his tone and not just his words, he would have heard the hurt that was laced with the phrase. 

“And what about ‘the son shall not suffer the sin of the father?” Aziraphale snapped back at him. “I can quote the bible as well, Anthony. If you can judge Warlock so harshly for the actions of his father, then what can you think of me? Am I no more than my father’s sin?”

Crowley tensed at that and in that moment, the hurt he felt turned rapidly on its head, anger filling him. “What of me? I’ve been held for my father’s actions. And Thaddeus Dowling is the cause of that,” he hissed at him, eyes narrowed behind his glasses. “Why should one child be held to the faults of his parents while the other isn’t?”

“Is that really what you think? How can you say things like that? You hold Gabriel accountable for what my family has done, but distance me from it. How?”

“Because you’re perfect, Angel!” Crowley shouted at him, far too loudly. He shrank back as he noticed a few people passing by had stopped and looked at them, their gaze holding steady for a few moments before they went back to what they had been doing. 

Aziraphale froze, his entire body tensing. Crowley could see his muscles twitching under his shirt, a noticeable tick in his jaw. “I am my father’s son, Anthony. You can’t just pretend otherwise,” he said. “What do you really think of me?”

There was silence and Crowley swallowed, a lump in his throat as he shook his head quickly. “This isn’t about you, Aziraphale,” he said, his voice cracking a bit. His eyes burned and he just wanted to hide. 

“Then what is it about? If you’re going to tell me Warlock is the devil because of his family, then look me in the eyes and tell me the same. You can’t hold us to different standards.”

“It’s not about you!”

“Then what is it about? Just tell me, Crowley or... “ he trailed off, looking around. “Or I’ll never speak to you again.”

Crowley stared at that, his jaw dropping open as he reached up, taking his glasses off. There were tears in the corners of his eyes, threatening to fall. He wanted to be angry. He wanted to yell at Aziraphale, to curse him and storm off. He wanted to avoid the conversation and pretend the situation never happened. But he couldn’t. The harshness in his voice was gone when he spoke next, his voice soft and full of barely hidden hurt. “Warlock is my half brother, angel,” he said quietly, his glasses in his hands as he looked down at the ground. 

Aziraphale froze at that, his entire body completely still as his blue eyes stared Crowley down. “What?”

“Harriet Dowling had an affair, then got pregnant. It took about three years for anyone to realise I looked nothing like either of them, and well, when I was seven, Thaddeus figured out I wasn’t his child. He had no issue dropping me with my biological father. Just packed up my belongings in the middle of the night and dropped me at this strange man’s doorstep,” Crowley’s voice was low. “He told me not to tell anyone or he’d have me put in jail for slander or whatever.”

The frustration that had filled Aziraphale’s every movement vanished and he unfroze, his arms immediately wrapping around Crowley. “That’s what you meant,” he said softly. 

“Don’t tell Adam...or anyone really. Bee doesn’t even know,” he told Aziraphale, not moving from the other’s embrace. 

“I won’t, Crowley. It’s not my news to share with them,” he said, clearing his throat. He was frowning and Crowley was doing his best to not look at him. “What are you going to do about Warlock though? He must have been old enough to remember you,” the blond asked. 

“He was almost five. There’s only two years between us,” he practically whispered, sighing. “I don’t know. Do you think that Adam is planning on starting to bring him around?”

“He mentioned that Warlock was going to come to Christmas this year with him. Apparently the Dowlings are going to be at some press thing and he’s staying here,” Aziraphale told him, finally realising his grip on Crowley. “It’ll be fine. You’re going to have to tell him eventually.”

“Yeah. Not yet though,” he said, swallowing. “Thanks, angel,” he said, his voice thick with emotion. He felt like there was a lump in his throat that he just couldn’t swallow, but it was fading slightly. 

They stood there in silence for a bit, neither of them moving. Finally, Aziraphale smiled at Crowley, a wickedly mischievous look in his eyes. “Do you really think I’m perfect?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and Kudos give me life and I literally check like all the time and reread the comments because they make me so happy


	12. Christmas Part One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for the holidays and Crowley and Aziraphale are always cute together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it's all gonna start going down at Christmas

Finals came and went as the term ended. Aziraphale spent most of his time in the library, with his visits with Crowley limited to when the red head brought him snacks or tea. He was rather serious about his studies, something that Crowley thought was rather endearing. He had his own studying to do, but he was nowhere near as devoted to them as the blond was. When they were over though, Crowley wasn’t able to stop the sigh of relief that came with leaving his last class. 

Since the first run in with Warlock, Crowley had managed to avoid the conversation. Adam seemed a bit more distant, but it was fine, Crowley told himself. He didn’t want to tell Adam why he didn’t like Warlock, even if it drove them apart for a while. However, with the holidays upon them, Crowley found that he wasn’t looking forwards to their yearly Christmas party. 

It was the first year that it was going to be more than just him and his flatmates. Their friend group had expanded quite a bit in the last year and he could tell that Bee was excited that other people shared their ideals and wanted to spend time with them. They’d never had many friends growing up, so the whole thing was exciting for everyone. 

Aziraphale hadn’t even mentioned their argument from before they all started prepping for their end of term exams, not mentioning anything that Crowley had told him. The week between the end of exams and Christmas, the blond had spent almost all of his time there with Crowley and the rest of the gang. 

The university campus was dead and there wasn’t much for them to do as far as distributing information. So they played board games and on Christmas eve, Bee suggested something that Crowley felt like they had been planning for a while. 

“Why don’t you read aloud for us?” they asked Aziraphale. The group was all there, with the exception of Dagon, who was working. Ligur and Hastur had taken over the sofa while Crowley sat on the arm of the chair Aziraphale was in. Bee was hanging upside down off of the coffee table, their eyes on Aziraphale. 

The blond looked a bit flustered for a moment before nodding and smiling. “Of course, dear. Does anyone have any requests?” he asked before pausing. “Or at least, what books have you got here?”

“Crowley here’s got himself a collection of Shakespeare’s comedies, you could read from that,” Ligur suggested, sending a look Crowley’s way.

“That would be excellent. Would you mind getting that my dear boy?” Aziraphale asked, looking up at Crowley with a pleading look. 

Crowley looked around the room, sending a glare to Ligur before getting up from his perch and heading towards his bedroom. He came back a moment later with a book in his hand. It was a fairly new looking copy of the collected works of Shakespeare. The spine didn’t even appear to have been cracked. 

The red head wasn’t about to admit that he had bought the book before Aziraphale had mentioned how much he loved Shakespeare and Crowley had thought about reading it and just never got around to it. He handed the book to Aziraphale before sitting down again, looking over Aziraphale’s shoulder as the blond started to thumb through the book. 

“Which play should I read?” he asked, looking up at Crowley. 

“Well...Midsummer’s Night Dream?” he suggested, rubbing the back of his neck. It was the only one that he recognised the name of in the book. 

“Alright,” Aziraphale opened up to the right page before glancing around the room. He cleared his throat, and began reading from the book, his voice smooth and even, with the practised ease of someone who already knew most of the words by heart. Crowley shifted in his seat, leaning slightly against Aziraphale as he listened. It was peaceful to hear him read and he could feel his eyes growing heavy. 

He opened his eyes when he noticed that the room was silent. He blinked slightly, glancing around. Bee was still laying on the coffee table, their eyes closed and face peaceful. Ligur and Hastur were nowhere to be seen and he was fairly sure he could hear Dagon in the kitchen. 

“Oh, you’re awake,” he heard Aziraphale say. He turned his gaze to the other, running a hand through his hair. 

“Did I fall asleep?” he asked, voice groggy and tired. He definitely had fallen asleep and he could feel his back, hips, and neck screaming at him for how he had slept. “Sorry.”

Aziraphale beamed at him, setting the book that was still in his hand down. “It’s not a problem, my dear. Bee fell asleep as well and Hastur and Ligur went out to do a last minute shopping trip for tomorrow,” he told him. “Although, sleeping like that was probably horrible for your back.”

“Awful,” Crowley confirmed, smiling a bit. He looked out the window at the dark sky. He had been out for a while as the sky had still been light when he’d first closed his eyes. “Hey, angel?”

“Yes?” he asked, shifting in his seat to get a better look at Crowley. 

“Would you like to just stay over tonight? It’s already late and well, everyone is supposed to get here around eleven, so there’s no point in you walking home tonight?” he said, looking at him a bit nervously. “The sofa pulls out and I know you brought over stuff for tomorrow already,” he added, his hand instinctively coming up to rub his neck. 

Aziraphale smiled and nodded, which immediately made Crowley feel better about the invitation. “Of course. That does make a lot more sense.”

Crowley smiled at that. “I’m sure we can find some kind of clothing you could borrow to wear tonight and you can help us set up in the morning.”

“That sounds lovely.”

><

Christmas morning dawned and Aziraphale was the first up. Crowley crawled out of his bed when he heard someone puttering around in the kitchen. Despite the fact that they had told people to start arriving at eleven, he didn’t expect any of his roommates to be out of bed before ten. So when he heard someone in the kitchen before nine, he assumed that it was Aziraphale. 

The blond was fiddling around with their kettle, filling it with water before setting it on the stove. He seemed rather oblivious, humming softly to himself as he moved about the kitchen. Crowley just smiled to himself, watching. They’d found a pair of oversized sweats in the back of Crowley’s closet, along with a shirt that just barely fit Aziraphale. Despite the fact the clothes didn’t fit him well, Crowley did find it amusing to see him in something other than khakis and sweater vests. 

“Morning,” he greeted him, startling Aziraphale out of his thoughts. The blond turned to look at him, a smile on his face as he did. 

“Good morning,” he greeted, turning back to the cabinets and finding himself a mug for the tea he was planning on making. “Did you sleep well?”

“Like a rock. You?”

“I slept just fine, my dear,” he said before turning to look at him. “Are you ready to meet Warlock this afternoon? I’m worried about a repeat from last time.”

Crowley paused, “Well, I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to do. I can’t exactly be like ‘hey there, kiddo, remember me?”’  
“You could,” the blond shrugged. “It would certainly be to the point.”

Crowley rolled his eyes at that, running a hand over his face as he sat down on the kitchen table. “It would be awkward. I could just pretend that I strongly disagree with his father and that’s why I had to leave last time?”

“That’s hardly a reason to be so rude to a person. Besides, Warlock and Adam are dating. You’re not going to be able to avoid him forever.”

“Crowley izz actually very good at avoiding people,” Bee interrupted them. They were in their pajamas still, shorts and an old tattered top with a cartoon fly on it. “He once hid from Haztur and Ligur for dayzzz,” they added, a tinge of pride in their voice. 

“Well, this isn’t something Crowley is going to be able to just avoid,” Aziraphale argued, frowning at the new member of their conversation. 

“No, it’z about Adam’s new boyfriend, right? Warlock, waz it?”

Crowley sighed. “Yeah, Thaddeus Dowling’s kid.”

Bee seemed a bit intrigued by that, shrugging a bit. “Izn’t that the politician who’z houze you wanted to egg when we were younger?”

“Yep, that’s him,” Crowley confirmed, huffing as he crossed his arms and looked at the two of them. “I don’t want to talk about that prick right now, so can we not?”

“I didn’t think Adam would ever conzider dating a politician,” Bee hummed, clearly thinking about it. “Iz he joining uzz today?”

“Unfortunately,” Crowley grumbled, sighing as he heard the kettle boil, the scream of the whistle cutting through the air. “He’s coming with Adam.”

“Well, play nice, Crowley. Don’t pizz off Adam,” Bee warned, looking back at Aziraphale. “Keep him in line, pleaze.”

“I plan on it,” Aziraphale smiled at them, shaking his head as he poured the boiling water into his mug. “I’m sure Warlock is a lovely young man and the two of you might just get along well,” he told Crowley, offering him a smile. “Tea?”

“Nah, I’m good, angel,” he sighed, staring at the fridge. “I’ll try my best, but I’m not going to make any promises about being nice to him if he’s a prick.”

“If he is a prick, as you say, then I’ll give you permission to be a little less civil. Just don’t let your mood ruin everyone else’s holiday, dear.”

Crowley looked at him, a small smile on his face. “Alright, angel. I’ll try. But the first sign of him being an arse, I’m kicking him out the door, okay?”

The blond sighed, clearly a little frustrated with Crowley and his antics. This earned a chuckle from said causer of the antics, who grinned at him. “Cheer up, Aziraphale, it’s Christmas!” He said cheerfully, shoving the other’s shoulder lightly. 

“I’ll cheer up when I’m sure you’re not going to cause trouble.”

“Never gonna happen,” Crowley told him with a small shrug. 

Aziraphale clearly have up then, making his tea before sitting down next to Crowley. “I know you’re nervous. It’ll be fine.” He places his hand gently on top of Crowley’s, looking at him carefully. 

“M’not nervous,” Crowley lied obviously, but to his relief, Aziraphale didn’t call him out on it. 

><

As people began to arrive, the apartment grew noisier and it wasn’t long before everyone who lived in the flat was awake and mingling with the crowd. It was rather similar to their weekly meetings, except with more eggnog and bad puns. 

The highlight of the morning was the arrival of Bee from their room and to the party. They had found an almost evil looking Santa hat to wear, along with a horrible Christmas sweater that in bold letters proclaimed “Hail Santa.” Crowley thought it hilarious while Aziraphale mentioned it being blasphemous. 

His thoughts were voiced and no one wasted the chance to remind him that he might as well have been in a flat full of demons. 

It wasn’t until noon that Adam and the Them arrived at the flat. Three of the four Them arrived together, all chattering and bundled in coats and hats. The last of them arrived ten minutes later, talking animatedly to one Warlock Dowling. 

Crowley was the first to see them, looking nervously at the pair before noticing that Aziraphale was giving him a stern look. 

“Go talk to him.”

“What? No! That was never part of the deal!” Crowley said, looking a bit offended before he glanced over at the pair again. “Do I have to?”

“Even if he wasn’t your brother, you were still rude the other day and you need to apologize for that,” Aziraphale admonished, looking at him. “Go.”

Crowley grumbled a bit, crossing his arms as he did his best to stalk over to where Adam and Warlock were standing, the two of them removing their coats and other winter gear. “Hey there, little Antichrist,” Crowley said, as that was normally how he greeted Adam, although, anyone listening would have been able to hear just how strained he sounded. 

“Crowley, did you sort out whatever caused you to run off the other day? Aziraphale said it was something important,” Adam said by way of greeting, a smile on his face. 

“Oh, that. Yeeeaah, all sorted. No problems here,” he said, making a face as he rubbed the back of his neck anxiously. 

“You’re a horrible liar, Anthony,” Adam told him, making a face at the name. He only used that tone when he was trying to call Crowley out on his shit, which was actually fairly often. 

“Ngk...uh...well, you have a boyfriend!” He said, struggling to find words. “That’s a thing, let’s change the subject.”

Warlock and Adam shared a look and Crowley could tell they were wondering what was going on. He really was shit at lying. 

Adam just let him though, clearly tabling it to use to make fun of Crowley later. “Yeah, Warlock Dowling, this is the evilest man to ever live, Anthony Janthony Crowley.”

“You’re lucky that you specified man, little Antichrist, Bee would have your head if they found out you thought someone was more evil than them.” They both shared a smile at that before Crowley continued. “Also you know very well that it’s not Janthony.”

“Jasmine then.”

Crowley pretended to look scandalized at that before shaking his head. “How do you tolerate him?” He asked Warlock.

“I just remember that one day the world will end and that tends to help.”

“He’s the Antichrist though, he’ll be fine.” Crowley couldn’t help but chuckle though. It was a good answer. 

Warlock seemed to consider that for a moment before nodding, “All the more reason to be on his good side then.”

Crowley looked at him, and while he still deeply disliked the Dowlings, he decided then that Warlock did turn out alright. “That’s a good point. You’re not gonna kill me though, right, Adam?”

“Depends on my mood,” Adam grinned at him, “So who knows?”

“Wicked child,” Crowley muttered, shaking his head. “Whatever, I’ll tolerate it only because it’s Christmas and the angel over there will stop talking to me if I fight you.”

Adam looked over at Aziraphale, waving before smirking at Crowley, “As if you could win, old man,” he teased before grabbing Warlock by the hand. “Let’s go talk to the actually cool people,” He grinned, purposefully teasing Crowley as they walked off. 

“Rude,” He huffed at him, heading back over to Aziraphale. “Happy?” He asked..

“Oh, extremely, my dear.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've got two more chapters done for Christmas Part Two and New Years and they'll be out soon


	13. Christmas Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here’s the rest of Christmas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m feeling nice so here is the rest of the Christmas

After a wonderful meal of Chinese food, with takeout boxes littering the room, everyone was lying on the ground or various pieces of furniture. Crowley was sprawled over two chairs, his head in Aziraphale’s lap as he dozed a bit. He didn’t eat much, but when it came time for their group parties, he usually ate and passed out right after. 

He could feel Aziraphale’s hands in his hair and he hummed, rubbing his face. He moved his glasses slightly, scrunching his nose up. After a moment, he just took the sunglasses off, tossing them to the side. “Well, what a party,” he hummed, opening his eyes and looking over at the rest of the group. 

Bee was laying on the sofa, on top of the rest of Crowley’s roommates. Dagon, Hastur, and Ligur all seemed unbothered by the fact they were being used as furniture, all three of them, on their phones. Adam and Warlock were on the ground close to where Crowley and Aziraphale were, with Adam laying in Warlock’s lap. The rest of the group were just scattered on the floor, all of them half asleep. They always ordered way too much food and it wasn’t uncommon for people to be found in food comas. 

“Your eyes are kind of an odd color,” Warlock commented, looking at Crowley curiously. 

The redhead paused, shifting so that he could look at the other. “Eh, I guess. It’s genetic. M’dad’s eyes were like this too.”

“My brother who had eyes like that,” he told him curiously. “Wonder where he got them from.”

Crowley and Aziraphale shared a look, but were stopped from saying anything by Adam, who spoke up. “I didn’t know you had a brother.”

Warlock moved a bit, running his fingers through Adam’s hair in a way that Crowley wondered if the other was trying to avoid the question. “Eh, he died when I was like five.”

“He did?”

Crowley seemed interested now. He had always wondered what the other had been told about him, and he wasn’t going to turn down the chance to find out. “How’d he die?”

“I’m not sure. My parents just told me one morning that I wasn’t going to be seeing him anymore,” Warlock shrugged. “I mean, I’m assuming he’s dead, why else would he be gone?”

“That’s horrible, dear,” Aziraphale said a bit sadly, looking at him. “Crowley lost his brother too when he was younger, perhaps the two of you should talk.”

Crowley looked at him in shock, his jaw dropping a bit at the betrayal from the other. “Uh, yeah sure,” he hummed, looking at Warlock. “Why don’t we..well..we can take the trash out. I’m sure Bee would appreciate that.”

Warlock looked a little conflicted before nodding. It was clear he wanted to know what Crowley had to say. “Yeah, sure. I’d love to talk to you,” he told him. 

Nodding silently, he got up, stretching out before beginning to collect the takeaway containers. No one else in the room reacted, all too tired and too full to even care. After a few moments, with everything packed up, Crowley led Warlock out the door and towards the elevator. “So...what was your brother’s name?”

There was a pause and Warlock sighed. “Anthony, actually. I used to call him Ash because apparently I couldn’t say his name as a baby,” he swallowed, “I thought Adam said you grew up in foster care?”

“I did. Went in when I was seven.”

They walked in silence for a moment, entering the elevator. Crowley pressed the button for the ground floor, looking over at Warlock who cleared his throat. “When were you going to tell me?”

“Tell you what?”

“Anthony, I’m not stupid. What are the odds of someone being the same age, having the same name and the same odd eye color? Besides, Adam told me that you really hated my family. Clearly you had reasons.”

Crowley froze at that, barely registering that the elevator had stopped and the doors opened. “You knew?”

“I figured it out about a minute ago. Wanted to know if you’d just tell me?” Warlock sighed, pulling Crowley out of the elevator. They walked outside in silence. 

“I was thinking about it. Besides, I mean, we’ve not talked in years.”

“We’re still brothers, Anthony, even if you’re only half related to me,” Before Crowley could say anything, Warlock continued. “I heard the fight mom and dad had about you. So I know.”

Crowley nodded, offering Warlock a slight smile. “Alright,” he agreed. He looked up at the sky, sighing. The sky was starting to go dark, clouds hanging heavy. A few white snow flurries blew past them and Crowley could tell that they were going to get quite a bit of snow that night. It was going to be pretty. 

“Thanks, Anthony,” he smiled at him, walking over to the dumpster and throwing one of the bags of trash into the bin. Crowley did the same, running a hand through his hair. 

“How funny we ended up at the same school,” Crowley commented, chuckling a bit as he started to head back. It was cold out and he really hadn’t prepared for that when he went out. He’d been so distracted by wanting to talk to Warlock, he hadn’t even remembered to put on a pair of shoes and it was fair too cold for that. 

Warlock nodded, hurrying alongside him. “Yeah, I’m glad I decided to go here though. Really glad.”

“Yeah, wanna tell me about what’s going on with you and Adam?” Crowley asked, smirking at him. 

The brunette made a face at him, groaning. “Come on, can’t you wait ten minutes before being an asshole older brother?”

“Nah, this is what you get now, Warlock. You’re just gonna be stuck with me now. I’ve got twelve years of annoying older brother antics to make up for.”

“Ugh, you’re the worst.”

><

As the night ended, people slowly started to leave. The day of drinking and eating died down and everyone left at least slightly buzzed. Even Bee had been impressed by how much Aziraphale was able to drink and still be standing after. Aziraphale was the last to leave, drunkenly fussing over helping clean up after everything. No one turned him down on the offer though as none of them wanted to have to clean at all. 

It was already dark when they were done picking up and Aziraphale was ready to head home. Crowley made sure to bundle up, planning on walking with Aziraphale.

The pair of them set off, with Aziraphale huddling close to Crowley. It was easily below freezing and Aziraphale hadn’t dressed properly for the weather. The red head didn’t mind, wrapping an arm around the blond with a smile. 

“So how was your Christmas?” he asked him with a smile, beaming a bit. It had been one of his best Christmases and he really hoped that Aziraphale had enjoyed himself. 

“Better than any that I’ve spent with my family. The lack of a sermon was pretty nice,” the blond smiled at him, leaning against Crowley. “How was it for you, my dear?”

“Better than it normally is,” Crowley told him, looking down at Aziraphale. He could feel his heart skipping slightly as he watched him. He almost thought about trying to ask the other out again, but he didn’t exactly think anything had changed since he had last asked him out. 

They got to Aziraphale’s building far too soon and Crowley looked up at it, sighing a bit. He took his sunglasses off, sticking them in his pocket as he looked down at the other. “Thank you for coming and spending time with all of us. Bee seems to be warming up to you.”

“I’m glad they seem to not hate me,” Aziraphale smiled, his cheeks were bright red and his eyes shone. It had begun to snow during their walk and flakes landed in his hair, falling over his clothes and catching in his eyelashes. It was gorgeous, Crowley thought and he breathed deeply, reminding himself that it didn’t matter what he wanted. 

“Yeah, well, I’m glad you came,” he said. He opened his mouth to say something else to him, but was cut off quickly. “So...ngk,” he managed before he was silenced by Aziraphale’s mouth on his own. His heartbeat skipped and he wrapped his arms around the other, melting into Aziraphale immediately. He had thought about kissing Aziraphale for months now and he was actually doing it and he could scarcely believe it. 

When Aziraphale finally pulled away from him, Crowley waited, waited for the other to tell him it was a mistake or something like that. It didn’t come though. Instead, a sly smile spread across the other’s face. “Come with me,” he said, grabbing Crowley’s hand and pulling him inside the building. 

The heat was blazing inside and Crowley followed after Aziraphale, feeling like his skin was on fire. He was in a daze and barely noticed as Aziraphale pulled him into his room, the door shutting behind them. 

“Angel, are you sure?” Crowley hummed, not wanting to be part of something that the other might regret. He didn’t complain though as Aziraphale kissed him again and the two of them stumbled further into the room. He could feel hands on his chest, unzipping his jacket as Crowley held onto Aziraphale like his life depended on it. It didn’t last for long though as Crowley’s eyes opened as his jacket was pushed for his shoulders. 

This was too much. It was everything he wanted, but he didn’t want it like this. It was going too fast and he was starting to panic. “Angel...I can’t.” he told him, pulling away rapidly. Azirphale looked shocked and hurt. With that look, Crowley could feel his heart splitting as he pulled his jacket back on. 

They had been drinking too much already and he could see in the blond’s face exactly how wasted he still was. He couldn’t take advantage of him like that. Not him. He wouldn’t be able to. He didn’t even give Aziraphale a chance to speak, walking out the door quickly.


	14. New Year, New Dumbassery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crowley and Aziraphale deal with the aftermath of the holidays

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here’s a chapter and I just finished Nanowrimo and I’m just dead inside. I’ve got another chapter done, but the chapters will be a bit more spaced out after this

Aziraphale woke late the day after Christmas with a pounding headache. He was still fully clothed and he felt half dead. He sat up in bed and immediately looked around. He remembered Crowley walking him home and then...he froze. He had kissed Crowley and pulled him into his room. 

Then Crowley walked away and didn’t even explain why he was walking away. Aziraphale frowned at that, his hungover mind trying to figure out why Crowley had left. He ran a hand over his face as he rolled onto his back. 

He finally sat up a few minutes later looking for his phone. It was on his bed, almost dead. A small part of him hoped that he would see a message from Crowley on the skin. There wasn’t though. There weren’t any messages on his phone and he felt his heart sinking a bit in his chest. He just hoped that he didn’t ruin their friendship the night before. 

Clearly it was silly to think that Crowley was still interested in him. It had been so long since the other had asked him out that there was no way that the other would still be interested in him. It wouldn’t be the first time that he lost out on something because he took too long to realise how he felt. 

He thought about going over to Crowley’s flat, but he didn’t. Instead he spent the day in his room, waiting to see if he’d get a message or call from Crowley. He didn’t get anything from him though. His phone didn’t go off at all that day or the day after. So he resigned himself to the fact that he might have ruined his only good friendship. 

It was three days before he got anything from anyone. He was still in his room, working through some books he was wanting to get done before the next term started. He heard heavy footsteps in the hall in front of his room. He barely had time to get himself settled before his door was thrown open. A small part of him was hoping it was Crowley. 

It wasn’t him though. Instead a rather furious Bee was in his room, their arms crossed. “What the fuck happened between the two of you? I thought you two worked out all of your bullzhit?” they yelled at him. 

Aziraphale frowned, looking at them with some confusion. “What?”

“You and Crowley are zo full of bullzhit and I’m zick of having to talk to you about your dumbazzery,” they buzzed at him, clearly angry. 

“What’s going on?”

“It’z like everytime Crowley comez here, he endz up in hiz room zulking for days. What did you zay to him?”

“I didn’t say anything to him,” Aziraphale admitted, frowning a bit as he looked at Bee a bit nervously. “I kissed him and he ran off. I’ve been waiting to hear from him for the last few days.”

Bee stopped, looking like they were less likely to kill him for a moment. There was an interesting look on their face that Aziraphale couldn’t quite place. Finally, when they did speak, there was a scary look on their face. “Well, Aziraphale. You have until the New Year to work thiz zhit out with Crowley or I’ll break your fucking kneez,” they said seriously, looking like they would have far too much fun following through with that threat. 

“I’ll fix it,” Aziraphale said after a moment, a bit nervous now. “You’re not going to hurt me now, right?”

“Fix your mezz,” Bee huffed at him, slamming the door on their way out. 

“Well, oh dear,” Aziraphale murmured to himself as he tried to figure out what he wanted to do. 

><

Crowley knew that hiding in his room when things didn’t go his way wasn’t the healthiest way to deal with his issues, but it worked in the past and worked for him now. He hadn’t answered or even picked up his phone in days. He knew full well that Bee was pissed at him. He could hear them stomping around the flat and occasionally screaming his name and an order for him to leave him room and face them like a man. 

He didn’t do that. Instead, he just focused on yelling at his plants. He didn’t know what to do about Aziraphale. He wasn’t even sure if the other kissed him because he actually liked him or perhaps he only kissed him because they were both drunk. He really hoped that wasn’t the case, but he wasn’t going to be the one to break the silence between the two of them. 

The group didn’t have a party for New Years. Instead, they all just hung around in the living room together. It was the first time Crowley really spent any time outside of his room since Christmas. Bee had at least given up on yelling at him, but it was still pretty clear that they were mad at him. 

The moment he left his room that evening, he avoided talking to Bee. He grabbed himself some coffee and sprawled out on the sofa. One of the best things about his friend group was that they were pretty good about leaving him alone when he was moping. 

Bee sat near them, an odd and scheming look on their face as they flipped on the television to provide them with some entertainment before midnight. Crowley didn’t really pay attention to what they were watching, staring off at the television as he tried to think about how he would ever be able to face Aziraphale again. 

Time tended to pass quickly when he was zoning out and he barely noticed as Bee started to kick him with their heavy ass boots. “Crowley, get the door,” they ordered, not even looking away from the television. 

Crowley huffed at that, rolling his eyes as he got up from his seat. He stretched a bit first, huffing as he headed for the door. “Whatever you say, Lord Beelzebub,” he grumbled at them, heading off. 

He opened the door tiredly, expecting it to be some kind of food delivery or something similar. It wasn’t though. Behind the door was Aziraphale, looking way too nervous. His hair was a bit messy and he was wringing his hands and clearly worried about something. 

“Angel. Uh...ngk. Come in?” he asked, inviting him in carefully. He stepped back, biting his lip. He wasn’t expecting to see Aziraphale for a while and it almost seemed like Bee knew the other was going to be there. 

“Crowley, yes, hello,” Aziraphale smiled at him, entering the flat and looking around. “Could we perhaps go and talk in your room? I’m sure your roommates would prefer we don’t bother them or disrupt their show,” he suggested, heading towards where Crowley’s bedroom was. 

“Yeah, course,” Crowley nodded, heading back to his room. He glanced at the clock in the kitchen, frowning as he realised just how close to midnight it already was. “What did you need, Angel?” he asked, shutting the door to his room. 

Aziraphale looked a bit nervous, and it seemed like he was almost purposefully putting himself between Crowley and the door. “Well, I thought we needed to talk. Especially after what happened at Christmas.”

“What exactly did happen at Christmas, Aziraphale?” Crowley asked, frowning as he looked at him. “I mean, what were you hoping for?”

The other looked a bit conflicted and then swallowed hard. “Well, I was under the impression that you were interested in going out with me and I thought I’d test that. Clearly, you’re not interested, so I’m not going to push it.”

“Not interested? You think I’m not interested?”

“Well, you did run off without explaining why you were running off, Crowley. It doesn’t exactly scream that you’re interested in having any kind of non platonic relationship with me.”

Crowley ran a hand over his face, groaning loudly. “I left because you were drunk, Angel. You really weren’t sober enough to be making any decisions about sleeping with someone. So I left.”

“I’m sober now, aren’t I?”

He paused, clearing his throat. “Uh, yeah. Seems so.”

“And you’re sober?”

“Yeah?”

Aziraphale hummed goodnaturedly and nodded, smiling at him. “Well then. Now that’s out of the way.” He moved forwards, grabbing Crowley’s shirt and kissed him. Crowley felt his heart skip and he sunk into him, wrapping his arms around Aziraphale’s waist as he returned the kiss. 

It was better this time. No one was drunk and there were no sloppy movements or groping hands. Aziraphale’s lips were soft, just like Crowley had always assumed they would be. It was everything he’d dreamed about since they’d met.  
Taking a deep breath as he parted the kiss, looking at Aziraphale with rapt attention. “Angel? Would you be interested in maybe going out on a date with me?”

With a grin, Aziraphale’s lips met his and Crowley smiled at the whispered words against his lips. “Yes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I literally live for comments, please give me them


	15. First Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crowley and Aziraphale go on their first date

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back from the dead! Sorry for the delay on this, I've been busy and sick so I've been putting this off for way too long

Crowley had trouble believing that Aziraphale actually wanted to go out with him. They planned their date in Crowley’s room just after midnight on New Years.The red head was still in some form of denial. It seemed to be too good for it to be true and he was kind of just hoping that he’d finally believe it while actually out with Aziraphale. 

They met just off campus the day after New Years. Crowley had wanted their date to be almost immediately after Aziraphale asked him out, but they had both agreed that midnight was not the best time to go on a date. So, just after five pm, Crowley was waiting for Aziraphale near the other’s favorite cafe. 

It was the same cafe they had first gone to when Crowley had burst into the Aziraphale’s room and they’d gone out. It seemed like the best place for them to meet up, especially since he knew just how much Aziraphale loved the crepes there. 

“Hey,” he greeted, his hands in his pockets to fight the cold as best he could. “Ready to eat?”

“Hello, my dear,” Aziraphale greeted him, grabbing Crowley’s arm and leaning over to kiss his cheek. “I’m starving.”

Crowley smiled at that, knowing for a fact that he probably was bright red. He cleared his throat, pulling his hand from his pocket and using it to grab the other’s hand. “Come on then.” He pulled Aziraphale inside, getting them a table. 

It was a nice restaurant, one that mostly only served small dishes and soups. Crowley was rather partial to the coffee they had there and he’d seen Aziraphale disappear their crepes in under a minute when he was truly hungry. A waiter came over, handing them menus. She greeted them kindly before walking off, undoubtedly to grab them water. 

“So...here we are, out and doing stuff,” Crowley said a bit awkwardly. He’d wanted to go out with Aziraphale for so long that he never thought that it would happen. Now that it was happening though, he wasn’t sure what to do. He and the other spent so much time together already that it shouldn’t have felt any different 

It did feel different, so much so that Crowley was struggling to think of anything to say that would be different than what they would talk about when they were together otherwise. “So, I spent some time talking to Warlock yesterday,” he said, knowing that Aziraphale thought that his younger brother was adorable and needed a ‘good’ person to look up to. 

“Ah, yes, he’s a good lad. Aren’t you glad that you decided to speak to him?”

Crowley chuckled at that, smiling a bit as he nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure that I wouldn’t have ever spoken to him if you hadn’t told me I needed to.”

The waitress came back to their table after a moment, setting glasses of water in front of them. She took both their orders then, leaving with barely another word to the pair of them. “So, did your parents call you or lecture you about not showing up for the holidays this year?” he asked him, taking off his sunglasses and setting them on the table. He knew that Aziraphale liked being able to see his eyes and the cafe was dark enough that he wasn’t too worried about any one commenting on them. 

“Oh, yes, they called me the day after and scolded me for not showing up at all. Apparently my grandmother was quite angry I wasn’t there,” he told him, a small smile on his face. “This was definitely my favorite Christmas I’ve celebrated though.”

“I’m glad. I thought this was a pretty great holiday too,” Crowley told him, smiling as well. It was hard not to smile when he saw the other smiling. Bee and the rest of his roommates had noticed just how head over heels he was for Aziraphale and had been teasing him relentlessly for it. He didn’t really care though, mostly because he knew that it was true. 

“I think it would have been better if I hadn’t drank so much though. I had a pretty awful hangover the morning after,” he commented, chuckling a bit nervously. “So...did you think about doing anything after we eat?”

“I hadn’t really thought that far,” Crowley admitted, chuckling as he sipped his water. It gave him a moment to think. “Did you want to go to something after?”

Aziraphale didn’t even pretend to take time to think before speaking. “We could go back to my room,” he suggested before turning red. “Not for like...you know, but I know you like hearing me read and we could just spend some time together there.”

Crowley paused, looking at him for a moment before clearing his throat. “Uh...ngk, sure,” he agreed with him. He’d never had an issue with being invited back to Aziraphale’s room, but for some reason, one that he could probably name if he had too, he felt nervous about going back to the other’s dorm with him. 

“Great. I got a lovely new copy of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, I’m sure you’d enjoy it,” he said happily, smiling. 

“Never heard of it. But I’m sure it’s great, angel,” Crowley told him before looking up as their waitress dropped their food in front of him. He could see Aziraphale practically wiggling in his seat when his crepes were placed in front of him. 

“Well, we can go after we eat then,” he said, digging into his crepes happily. Aziraphale hummed happily as he started to eat. “These are heavenly. Want to try some?” he asked, holding out a bite for Crowley. 

He smiled at him, leaning forwards and taking the offered bite. It was good. Not really something Crowley would normally order, but good. He himself had gotten half a sandwich and some coffee. It was more than enough for him though.

“So is Bee no longer on a warpath with a desire for my blood?”

“What?” Crowley paused, staring at him for a moment. “Did Bee threaten you or something?”

“They didn’t tell you? Bee threatened to break my knees right after Christmas,” he admitted to him. He chuckled a bit. “Does Bee often threaten people like that?”

“I mean, they’ve threatened you like three times?” Crowley reminded him, chuckling as well. “It’s something you should just get used to,” he paused. “They threatened to throw me out a window once just because I left my boots on in the flat for more than a minute.”

Aziraphale looked at him with a slight look of shock. “Really?”

“They’d never actually do it. I mean, not to anyone they consider a friend. Besides, they might act like they hate you, but it’s not true.”

“They don’t? It seems like they’re not a fan of me.”

Crowley shrugged, making a face. “It’s not that they don’t like you, they just don’t trust easily. Actually, they think you’re pretty cool, especially after you beat up those assholes with a stick.”

“That was pretty cool, wasn’t it?” he smiled at the memory. 

Sipping his coffee, Crowley nodded. He really did have to agree. Athough for him, the moment just happened to solidify just how gay he was for him. “Well, you earn their respect then. So them liking you is just going to take some time.”

Aziraphale just accepted that and went back to eating his crepes. “So, are you planning on spending more time with Warlock before the holiday break is over?”

“Eh, I’m not sure. I mean, he’s spending some time with his parents for the next few days,” Crowley said before making a face, “And I’m hardly wanting to spend any time with the Dowlings.”

“Well, I’m sure you’ll have time to spend with him once the term starts up. I mean, you hardly go to class so I’m sure you’ll have the time.”

“I don’t go to class because I’m usually out doing errands for Bee and the good of anarchy as a whole.”

“The good of anarchy as whole?” he questioned, shaking his head. “Whatever you say, Crowley.”

“It is a very important mission, angel. I mean, where would our group be if I didn’t skip class to hand out flyers and fight people?”

“Well, I think that Ligur probably wouldn’t have a police record if you didn’t,” he teased him, chuckling.

“If I didn’t do it, Bee would just send someone else out to pick fights.”

Aziraphale clicked his tongue disapprovingly as he finished his crepes. “I’m pretty sure they send you out to hand out flyers, not so that you can pick fights with everyone who looks at you funny.” 

“Picking fights is incredibly important for our cause, angel,” Crowley grumbled a bit, rolling his eyes as the waitress brought their check and Crowley made sure to pay before Aziraphale could even attempt to get his wallet out. “Back to yours then?” he grinned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and kudos give me life and can convince me to post more often


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